12-4 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



farming." But there is scarcely a farm in Essex County on 

 which it may not be profitably employed to a greater or less 

 extent. Those spots, frequently seen, which produce nothing 

 but "run-hay" while corn is growing luxuriantly on the 

 adjoining slope, may perhaps be very conveniently located for 

 better cultivation. Two or three tons of good English hay to the 

 acre would soon pay for draining. How often do we see the 

 grass crop of a farm almost entirely gathered from the cold, 

 wet fields, because the grain and root crops must occupy the 

 warmer elevations. Would not the cattle of that farm rejoice 

 in the fruits of a little drainage, and their improved condition, 

 together with the increased hay crop, soon return the money 

 spent in tiles and ditches ? There may be a little spot near the 

 barns where in a leisure hour the farmer could cultivate a few 

 additional roots for winter forage, but the chilling waters will 

 not yield their sway, and he abandons it to water grasses and 

 weeds. A few tiles might give him a light and loamy bed in 

 which his crops would rejoice. 



Thorough drainage does not belong to pioneer farming it is 

 true. It is no part of the work of clearing the forest and 

 expelling the wild beasts. Neither does it belong to fancy 

 farming alone. Every man in such a region as Essex County 

 who can afford to keep his farm through care, and industry, 

 and thrift, can just as well afford to drain portions of it as 

 he can afford to fence and manure it. If he can afford to 

 do the one, he can afford to do the other. If he applies his 

 industry to the one, he can better apply it to the other. For 

 he may build the most substantial fences around fields loaded 

 with manure, and yet find himself inclosing nothing but 

 " vexation of spirit " and a reproach to all his labor, because 

 he has failed to lay the foundation of his agriculture on a 

 well drained soil. Every mechanic who owns his cottage and 

 a few adjoining acres — (and I am happy to say that our county 

 has hundreds of such men) — will do well to commence at 

 the bottom of his soil if he hopes to reap the reward of the 

 farming which he snatches from his bench and workshop. 



I have dwelt the more, too, upon tile drainage, because 

 strange as it may appear, stone drains have still their advo- 

 cates among us. He who improved the plough is looked upon 

 as a benefactor. The inventors of mowing machines, and 



