100 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



But to maintain that nothing can be done to promote the 

 develoj^ment of our agriculture, — to cling to the favorite preju- 

 dices of a past age, — to reject the proffered aid and refuse the 

 helping hand of science, and thus trig the wheels of progress, 

 is as unreasonable as to go to the opposite extreme and main- 

 tain that science will effect an entire revolution in farming and 

 make labor a pastime. Truth generally lies between extremes, 

 and the true medium must be arrived at by the aid of soimd 

 judgment and common sense ; but if a man is prejudiced, either 

 by the results of early training or a long life of routine, his 

 judgment is not sound. 



One thing is certain, that under the influence of practical 

 farming, so called, the land of New England has notoriously 

 deteriorated to such an extent that it is estimated that at least 

 a thousand millions of dollars would be required to repair the 

 effects of a wasteful and exhausting system of cultivation. 



Now what are we to do about it ? That is the question which 

 must be met. Much has already Ijecn done, but far more still 

 remains to do. If we are to sit idle, content with our present 

 acquisitions in farming, and scout the idea of all attempt at 

 further progress, I admit the perfect folly of spending time and 

 money in experiment ; but if we are to keep up with the march 

 of improvement in other professions, or in the agriculture of 

 other states and countries, how arc we to work unless it be by 

 practical experiment, or by reliance on the crude theories and 

 ill-digested, uncertain deductions of those who claim to speak 

 by authority of science ? 



Among the greatest difficulties which we as farmers have to 

 contend with, will be found the custom of making careless state- 

 ments and hasty conclusions, and the habit of conducting 

 experiments in such a vague and unsatisfactory manner, that 

 they are entirely useless as data upon which to found correct 

 rules of farming. How few, even of those who are willing to 

 make experiments, can bring to them the exact and nice obser- 

 vation of all modifying circumstances of the weather and temper- 

 ature through a long season, or can keep constant and careful 

 records of every fact which will be of importance to one living 

 m another part of the State, or on a different soil ? Suppose 

 you raise a field of corn, for example, and undertake to make a 

 statement for the good of the community ? The history and 



