192 BOARD OF AaPilCULTUKE. 



fies3 in Maine, and provided it is conducted upon true and correct 

 principles, like every other good business, it is profitable according to 

 its magnitude. I am well aware that to renovate an exhausted farm, 

 and bring it into a desirable state of cultivation, requires time, 

 labor, and capital in proportion to what is to be accomplished, and 

 the size of the farm, in my opinion, should always be in proportion 

 to the means of carrying it on ; and the true principles of farming are, 

 to make every acre produce nearhj if not quite its entire capacity ; 

 (there may be an exception in regard to hay.) and although it may 

 take some time to accomplish this, yet well directed elTorts will con- 

 summate our object sooner or later. 



Some years since, I met in Massachusetts, an intelligent gentle- 

 man of that State (if I may be allowed tojudgeof such a character) 

 who appeared to be much interested in farming, and made many 

 inquiries relative to agriculture in Maine. "Ah!" said he, "you 

 run over too much land in jNIaine ; land is too cheap there ; the same 

 was true once of Massachusetts, and the defect is not entirely reme- 

 died yet." He said his grand-father settled on one hundred and 

 sixty acres of land about forty miles from Boston ; he succeeded in 

 his life time in making a valuable farm, kept a good stock, and sup- 

 posed he was doing all that could be done profitably on a farm of 

 that size. It was subsequently divided between his two sons, each 

 of whom made such improvement that they kept the same amount 

 of stock, and raised as much produce as their father. " And," said 

 he, " my farm consists of forty acres, one-fourth part of the original, 

 and I keep as much stock, and raise as much, as the whole originally 

 did, and I do not believe I have reached its capabilities by consider- 

 able, hut I will do it.^' 



And in conclusion, I will only add, that in my opinion, a correct 

 system for renovating worn out land, embraces a correct system of 

 general farming; a system which, if correctly followed, will not run 

 out farms. A correct knowledge of the system must be gained by 

 studying what is written, by observing general practice and its 

 effects, and by practicing what experience proves to be correct. 



The farmer who rejects scientific agriculture, (or what he terms 

 book-farming) altogether, is like a certain class of physicians who 

 value themselves on account of their ignorance of science, and boast 

 of having derived their skill from an unlettered Indian, and usually 



