QQ MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



tinned — but they do not do enough. They only serve to diflfuse 

 among you the knowledge any one of you may possess. Patron- 

 ize agricultural papers ; you must do that, but they only diffuse 

 knowledge already possessed. It is your business to create 

 knowledge. The resources of the county are in her soils. 

 Have you any statistical information concerning these soils ? 

 Do you know how much of the land of this county is cropped 

 from year to year without manure, and the crops carried off? 

 And do you know where it is done ? Do you know how much, 

 and where the land is, that will grow only a crop of rye once in 

 two years ? Do you know how much, and where the peat and 

 meadow mud are, to fertilize that land ? Do you know the 

 amount of the agricultural produce per cultivated acre, in differ- 

 ent parts of the county, on the different soils ? Do you know the 

 amount of stock that can be kept, per acre, in the different 

 towns in the county, and on the different soils of those towns ? 

 Do you knoAV how many able-bodied, native men, whose ages 

 are between twenty-one and fifty, are at work on the farms in 

 the county ? If you do not know these things, how do you 

 know whether you make any improvement or not, from year 

 to year ? How do you know what are the Aveak and what are 

 the strong points in your resources ? How do you know to what 

 to direct the energies of the association — for what to offer your 

 premiums ?* All this knowledge can be obtained without 

 expense, probably, by a simple arrangement of town and dis- 

 trict committees. But there are farmers who can aflbrd to pay 

 hundreds of dollars for a good report upon these facts, for the 

 publicity it would give to the resources of their farms, and the 

 increased cash value of their farms in consequence. 



But some one hears me, who will go away saying, " All this 

 knowledge will do me no good. It will not make corn grow, 

 nor fat the cattle." Sir, I think you are mistaken. But I do 

 not address you. I address a body of men who look for their 

 own good through the good of the Avhole. Such knowledge 

 will pay any inhabitant of the county, in the general rise of the 



* There is no way of presenting truth of this kind but by statistics. Tlie 

 statesman who reckons without them, " reckons ^vithout his host." The trades- 

 man can make no sure calculation upon supply and demand without his 

 figures, and any man who proposes to act, ought to know, in definite terms, 

 what is to done. 



