CHANGES MADE OR REQUIRED IN FARMING. 377 



in Maine guessing at what we were made for, and now that we 

 have decided that it is dairying and fruit growing, let us go to 

 work with a will, reclaim our waste lands which can be made 

 excellent for these purposes, and looking to Him who alone can 

 guide us, we will ultimately reach success. 



Mr.. IT. Colburn of Kennebec county read the following paper 

 on the leading topic announced: 



Ox the Changes Made or Required in Farming. 



That the farmers of Maine have made great advance in im- 

 provement, for ten or twenty years past, is evident from the 

 manner of performing farming operations. Although laboring 

 under disadvantages, by reason of the cheapness of Western 

 products, the farmer of Maine to-day is better able to compete 

 with the Western farmer than he was twenty years ago. There 

 were then no railroads by which he could get a quick return for 

 his products; often they had to remain long on his hands before 

 he could sell, and if grown on borrowed capital, the interest 

 would eat up the profit ; but now if a farmer hires means to do 

 his work, he can usual]}*- get a sale for his products«vithout store- 

 ing, and thereby save a large percentage. 



That the practice of farmers in Maine, as a whole, has changed for 

 the better as much as conditions and circumstances have changed, 

 we do not say, but that the majority have adopted better methods, 

 is evident from the improved implements of husbandry now in use. 

 At no very remote day, you might have seen, on some cross road, 

 a fanner plowing with an old-fashioned, wooden, mould-board 

 plow, which required the strength of five or six yoke of oxen to 

 draw it, turning over the soil two or three inches deep, after 

 which he would not allow his team to step foot on the plowed 

 ground, but takes his hoe and holes out the rows, after which he 

 would take a hod, go to the manure heap at the edge of the 

 plowed laud, fill it, carry it on to the ground and deposit a certain 

 amount in each hill ; and then return and fill it again, and so on. 

 When it came hoeing time, he would not allow a horse to step 

 between the rows, but must have large hills made around his com 

 and potatoes with a hand hoe, which the boys must not step on, 

 or, if they did, they must go back and smooth them over. Not 

 so with the farmer of to-day. He will have one of the best 

 modern plows and instead of five or six yoke of oxen, not more 

 than two yoke, or three horses, and plows five to eight inches 



