30 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



comes the second stage. From this free giving comes waste- 

 fulness, then leanness of soil, then emigration and desertion, 

 then sedges and broom, white-birch and hardback ; and the 

 land is ready for its third degree. And this is the point 

 where any thing like true farming begins ; the period where 

 economy, labor, and science all take hold and pull together ; 

 where, for the first, great yields are invariably and univer- 

 sally produced; when the farmer accepts the facts of his 

 calling, and, without excluding comforts, adapts to it, if need 

 be, his style, living, in short, his expenses, — this third stage, 

 we say, a point which mature civilization always reaches, 

 where necessity compels the only farming that will pay ; 

 and this will be the method of " New-England farming re- 

 stored." What, now, are the strong points, the character- 

 istics, of this method ? Take first, not theories, but existing 

 facts, carefully prepared and supported. Take farming in 

 England, or, where it is better still, in Belgium or Holland. 

 (And who shall say that we are not equal to our fathers ?) 

 The average wheat-yield of England is thirty-three bushels 

 to the acre, though it frequently runs higher. The Channel 

 islands, Guernsey and Alderney, have produced seventy-two 

 bushels to the acre. Was this fancy farming ? No, it was 

 only sharp work for the living of the family. Was it done 

 by new specialties ? No, but by the most careful use of old 

 facts, and resources that are universal. By judicious fertiliz- 

 ing the wheat-head was doubled in length, and then the stalk 

 was strengthened to sustain it. It is by saving every drop 

 and every spoonful, nay, every odor that will fertilize, keep- 

 ing the breath of death from the lungs and blood, and turn- 

 ing it into sweet food for the stomach. Especially are the 

 liquids of the cow-stable, horse-barn, and dwelling, all util- 

 ized. A gallon from the first, a quart from the second, and 

 a pint from the third, are each equal in value. 



Literally, every thing that has been once used by Nature or 

 man takes another degree in the great round of going and 

 returning. 



In matured communities, and countries like England, in- 

 deed Western Europe in general, where a settled order, a 

 final condition of things, may be supposed to exist, land is 

 regarded more as a place to hold the seed, and, in the same 

 thought, the fertilizer. Far less reliance than with us is 



