2 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



form of the squashes grown from them ? Will a squash yield- 

 ing a very small number of seed give its like in this respect 

 and vice versa ? To what degree is it possible to remove by 

 careful culture from any variety any impurities which manifest 

 themselves ? Will small, well-ripened seed yield a smaller 

 squash than may be obtained from large, well-ripened seed of 

 the same variety ? Will the seed from a squash of a superior 

 flavor yield better flavored squashes than those from a squash 

 equally mature but of an inferior quality ? Will vines in hills 

 or drills yield the more abundantly, in experiments caeh vine 

 to be allowed the same area ? What is the reason why the 

 grass and, in general, the vegetable growth on some of the 

 islands along our coast is not far from double, acre for acre, 

 that of the same varieties on the adjoining main land, though 

 in each instance the soil is porphyry and greenstone and each 

 are about equally subject to drought ? 



These questions have a practical bearing on high culture, 

 even if but a negative could be proved of any of them. Every 

 good farmer knows that they may be extended ad infinitum. 

 No, the field is not exhausted. 



If you go among your brother farmers or pass from agricul- 

 tural community to agricultural community, you will be struck 

 with the difference in the pecuniary returns which are obtained 

 for the same amount of labor invested. After having made a 

 fair allowance for all local peculiarities, still a marked differ- 

 ence in the result will oftentimes remain unaccounted for. 

 This difference must arise (there is no chance in nature) from 

 a knowledge on the part of the more successful of some condi- 

 tions to success, certain links in the chain of causes which are 

 unknown to the other. It is often true that this knowledge 

 has been stumbled upon, and but little is due to thorough 

 experiment ; this is like trusting to finding a dollar as wc walk 

 along the highway rather than pursuing a legitimate course 

 which will certainly bring it. A dollar may be found on the 

 highway, but meanwhile many dollars could with a certainty 

 be earned. 



There is a farmer in the vicinity of Boston who has discov- 

 ered a way of raising early turnips free from vermin ; even his 

 very i sighbor has not learned the process ; a simple fence 



separates widely different results, simply because it separates 



