SHEEP. 11 



of our short summer, has literally fulfilled the Scripture as 

 to " the sweat of his face." 



Forty years ago, Mr. Henry Coleman, then commissioner 

 of agriculture, calculated the cost of labor to au acre of corn 

 at about eighteen dollars. Taking into account the lower 

 rates of wages at that time, and greater value of money, this 

 would be equal to thirty dollars now. 



The best crops offered for the premiums of our societies 

 the past year have been made at less than one-quarter of this 

 expense when the tillage has been by the horse-hoe and 

 cultivator. The crops reported have been very large, some 

 of them more than a hundred bushels to the acre. 



The economy has been effected by following the Western 

 method of culture, in which a man and horse rapidly do the 

 work that formerly demanded all the energy of tlie farm. 

 The yield of grain has been increased and the amount of 

 stover lessened by root-pruning, the teeth of the cultivator 

 bringing away large masses of roots to the benefit of the 

 crop. This is the opposite method to the aboriginal practice 

 of hilling up. 



The question of corn-culture was made prominent at the 

 late country meeting of the Board of Agriculture at South- 

 borough. The papers, statement of crops, and discussions 

 will be found in subsequent pages. 



SHEEP. 



In the important matter of sheep-husbandry the farmers 

 of Massachusetts show a fatuity, and disregard of theu- 

 interests, at variance with their record in other branches of 

 business. 



In former days the hills of the western counties were 

 enriched by large flocks of sheep. In 1838 we had 384,614 

 sheep, mostl}^ Merinos and Saxonies, shearing 1,050,327 

 pounds of fleece. At that time the business was practically 

 limited to wool-growing, the small fine-woolled breeds being 

 of little value, except for fleece, and the prices of wool 

 dependent upon a struggling woollen-industry. It was' 

 proved to our farmers that the wide ranges of cheap lands 

 at the West were better adapted to the business ; and the 

 flocks were gradually sacrificed, until, at the last census, we 

 had but 58,773 sheep: these were mostly mutton sheep, 



