24 EOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



shall earnestly seek to accomplish greater results by improved me- 

 chanical aids. 



Gentlemen of tliis Board, who have carefully followed our able 

 secretary through his valuable reports, must see clearly the capabil- 

 ities, and the fitness of our soil for grazing as a leading pursuit ; 

 and are prepared to predicate an opinion, that we may look for a 

 vast increase in the numbers and value of our domestic animals at 

 no distant day, on something more tangible than the idle fancies of 

 a fertile imagination. Allowing the convictions of gentlemen to 

 coincide with the views of the secretary on this point, and we are 

 ready to proceed with our inquiry as to the connection cur Topic 

 holds to our general interest. 



One English writer says, " we are justified and compelled to 

 adopt every useful implement and mechanical invention which 

 will cheapen the cost of production." This word, "justified," 

 clearly refers to the condition of things there, under which it might 

 look as injustice to the dependent laborer who delved with the spade, 

 to introduce machines that should supersede spade labor. That such 

 introduction cheapened the cost of production, there seemed to be 

 no doubt. Again we read from an English farmer, " Root cultiva- 

 tion is the farmer's sheet anchor and the nation's safety-valve. If 

 we build a house on a poor foundation, the labor of the superstruc- 

 ture is wasted ; and unless we commence farming by endeavoring to 

 produce great green crops, we shall find our future success and sta- 

 bility very uncertain indeed." An American farmer says, " many 

 farmers who now pride themselves in raising fair crops of oats, 

 would find it to their advantage to raise twenty times their value in 

 carrots on tbe same amount of ground." • 



A common saying in the Mother country may be borrowed, and 

 in time hold good here as there, " without roots there is no stock ; 

 without stock there is no manure ; without manure there is no grain 

 and hay." While the statistics of England and of the continent of 

 Europe, show beyond cavil, that the ^^ shift system,''^ based on the 

 root crop, has tended directly to increase the value of domestic ani- 

 mals and the acreable products of the cereals more than a hundred 

 per cent, in a quarter of a century, and vastly augmented the pro- 

 duct of pasture and meadow, may we not safely follow in the same 

 direction ? When it has been demonstrated and made clear to our 



