20 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



THE DUTY OF THE FARMER TO HIS CALLING. 



From an Address before the Middlesex North Agricultural Society. 



BY GEO. S. BOUTWELL. 



The demand for cattle has outrun the production. This lias 

 been in a degree demonstrated by the average high prices 

 obtained for the flesh of animals, and the extraordinary prices 

 paid for their hides. And this, notwithstanding the large and 

 continuous supplies received from the wilds of Africa and the 

 pampas of South America. It is not probable that the supply 

 of foreign hides can be continued, omitting, for the moment, to 

 consider the annual addition needed to meet the increasing 

 wants of this and other civilized countries. The fault, you 

 may say, is with the manufacturers, who ought to make shoes 

 so good that one pair would be equal, in serviceable value, to 

 three pairs of the quality now usually furnished. This is all 

 true ; but the chance of reform is not such as to justify san- 

 guine expectations. It is more practicable to increase the 

 number of cattle. Our long winters are no doubt unfavorable ; 

 but lands arc not expensive, and the pasturage in most parts of 

 New England is of an unusual quality. 



It will not be out of place to mention an error into which 

 our farmers generally have fallen. In clearing lands for pas- 

 tures, no attention has been paid to the circumstance that 

 forests upon the summits and elevated declivities of hills and 

 mountains are reservoirs of water and storehouses of decayed 

 and decaying vegetation, which irrigate and fertilize all the lands 

 below. But when, as is often, or, indeed generally the case, the 

 the summits are cleared of woods, then the process of impoverish- 

 ment commence-:, the soil is gradually washed to the plains, 

 meadow-, and streams, and there remains no efficient means by 

 which the ! can be restored. It is also to be considered that 



forests upon the highest points multiply the showers of summer 



