44 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



the nature of the soil and the crops you plant ; to observe a 

 careful rotation, in order that the next year's crop may receive 

 the benefit of those elements in the soil and the manure which 

 were not required this year, that nothing may be wasted and the 

 land kept constantly productive ? This will be readily granted. 

 Now if it can be demonstrated to a mathematical certainty, 

 that by subsoiling and thorough draining, you receive fifty or 

 one hundred per cent, on your expenditure, and that the 

 improvement is not for one year only, but for all time, will you 

 not turn up the under-soil of your acre to the vivifying influ- 

 ence of sun, rain and air, and lay your drains, that the water 

 may percolate, carrying with it the air to heat, ventilate and 

 fertilize, and that the roots may strike deep instead of spread- 

 ing themselves on the surface, where they are susceptible to all 

 the baneful changes in the atmosphere, especially to drouth ; 

 that your acre patch may become dry and warm in two days 

 after the frost comes out, and that you may plant it weeks 

 before your neighbor ? 



Now, if this is true of one acre, why not of twenty, fifty, an 

 hundred ? If one acre can be made to yield a profit of twenty 

 per cent., why not make the remaining forty-nine do the same ? 

 If one acre can be made to produce seventy-five bushels of corn, 

 why should not the whole farm be brought up to the same stand- 

 ard ? You will exclaim, " This is gardening — not farming ! " 

 I care not what term you apply to this mode of cultivation, but 

 if gardening a small patch is vastly profitable, why not garden 

 more ? If a man can support his family on an acre or two thus 

 treated, what might not you do with your fifty ? 



You will again object, we cannot aflbrd this expenditure. 

 But, do you not find money enough to buy a little railroad stock 

 — a bond or so — which generally depreciates in value ? How 

 much wiser to plant your money in your land, and to see it, 

 every two or three years, doubling itself. The mistake farmers 

 make, in my humble judgment, is in considering money thus 

 appropriated an expenditure^ whereas it is an investment of the 

 most productive nature. 



If you have no money to make these improvements, why not 

 part with half your siiperfluous, poorly cultivated acres, and 

 produce more with the remaining portion than you ever did 

 with the whole ? 



