SECRETARY'S REPORT, 103 



Such indications would naturally lead a stranger to the conclu- 

 sion that grass is largely grown in Maine, and an examination will 

 show that notwithstanding the present barren condition of so many 

 fields, we still cut, in proportion to our population, about twice as 

 much hay as the average of the States of the Union, 



Such being the magnitude of this interest, it is patent that nothing 

 else upon the farm better deserves earnest and thoughtful attention. 

 If improvement can be effected by which the crop can be increased 

 only a hundredth part, this will secure a gain to the farmers' pocket 

 of one hundred thousand dollars — if increased one-tenth, it will 

 amount to one million of dollars — if one half, the gain will be five 

 millions, and if doubled, no less than ten millions of dollars ; and if 

 pasturage be included, as much as ten millions more. 



I know of no reason why such an increase, or even a much greater 

 one, in amount and value, may not be effected. 



When we look at the thousands of wet meadows and unreclaimed 

 swamps, many of them of considerable extent, containing untold 

 quantities of vegetable food, and into which the mineral riches of 

 hill and upland adjoining has been gathering for ages past, and 

 which need but to be relieved of injurious water and supplied with 

 air in its place, to equal in fertility for grass the best intervals by 

 our rivers' side — when we look at the loss and waste of manure 

 which prevails upon the great majority of fiirms in the State — 

 when we look at the unclaimed fertilizers of the ocean — seaweed, 

 muscle bed, fish refuse, etc., which are easily available along a sea- 

 coast more extensive and more indented than that of any other State 

 in the Union — when we look at the great diversity of methods em- 

 ployed in the preparation of the soil — in seeding down — in the treat- 

 ment after seeding, in the time of cutting and the style of harvesting, 

 all of which certainly cannot be the best, we cannot fail to see ample 

 means of securing a vast, perhaps indefinite, increase, and of corres- 

 ponding prosperity. 



Suppose we look for a moment, more critically to the result of 

 improvement upon a single point. 



The hay crop of Maine is now harvested from more than a million 

 of acres, perhaps a million and a quarter, or a million and a half. 

 Suppose the same amount cut from half the surface, would there be 

 any gain, and if so, how much ? The cost of cutting, curing and 



