AGEICTJLTUEE 0¥ MASSACHUSETTS. 



SUGGESTIVE FARM-HINTS. 



[From an Address before the Essex Society.] 



BT T. C. THXTRLOW. 



I HAVE chosen for my subject " Suggestive Hints ; " and it 

 will, perhaps, be excusable, if I indulge in a few friendly 

 criticisms on the general management of farms in this vicin- 

 ity at the present time. 



In the first place, every farmer, if he has not already done 

 so, should sit down carefully and candidly to consider to 

 what crop or crops his farm is best adapted in relation to 

 its nearness to or distance from a market ; the quality of the 

 soil, — whether heavy or light, whether best adapted to grass, 

 and the raising of stock and the production of milk, or the 

 growing of early vegetables and small-fruits. He might with 

 profit consult his more experienced neighbors in regard to it, 

 and, after being fully persuaded what course to pursue, let 

 him stick to it. Not changing from one crop or system to 

 another, but making a specialty of some particular branch of 

 husbandry, he will in the long-run succeed in any, provided 

 he combine with it a sufficient amount of skill, prudence, and 

 industry. Perhaps there is no one thing in which farmers as 

 a class are so deficient as in a regular system of keeping 

 accounts, in knowing in dollars and cents what this or that 

 crop costs, or what is the actual profit from each animal. In 

 what other business could a man succeed who was so gener- 

 ally negligent of his accounts ? These can be kept every day 

 in the most simple manner ; so that, at the end of the year, 

 he can easily see what it has cost the family for sugar, for 

 butter, for milk, and for flour. The cost and proceeds of 



