72 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



tures, and an hour's time of a boy, morning and evening, and 

 the work of a team and a man now and then a day for hauling 

 soil into the yard, would be sufficient to secure an amount of 

 fertilizing material which would largely increase the hay-crop 

 on every acre of the farm. It is probably safe to say that no 

 other labor connected with the farm would yield a greater re- 

 turn in dollars and cents than this. And yet how often, not 

 to say how generally, is this means of securing fertilizing 

 materials ignored or only partially carried out. 



3. Farmers can further vastly improve their present condi- 

 tion by converting every bog and swamp on their farms into 

 a fruitful field, or a meadow covered with luxuriant grass ; or, 

 they can convert them into fish-ponds even more valuable 

 than a meadow or field. It is a notorious fact, that a consid- 

 erable portion of the best land for grass in the State of Mas- 

 sachusetts, is to-day untouched in swamps and bogs, while 

 men are spending their time and strength on the gravelly 

 hillsides, and getting only half a crop as a reward for their 

 toil. 



There are on farms, in many cases, bogs and swamps which 

 are wholly untouched, and which are worth far more than all 

 the rest of the firm. Nature during lon^^ centuries has been 

 gathering the richest materials into these bogs and swamps, 

 and there they are waiting the touch of the hand of intelligent 

 labor. A cutting doAvn of the alders and willows, and of the 

 coarse weeds and gi"asses, and a judicious and thorough drain- 

 ing, are all that are needed to make these the best grass-lands 

 on the farm, and in the State. 



4. Farmers in many portions of our State can improve their 

 pecuniary condition by preserving their brooks and directing 

 into them the coldest and best springs along their course, and 

 then holding the brooks exclusively for those gentlemen who 

 would like to hire the right of fishing such streams. I do 

 not propose to enlarge upon this topic ; but I will say that 

 there is no doubt that any farmer who has a clear, cold stream 

 on his farm, can rent the right of fishing in that stream for 

 enough to pay all his taxes, and to pay for a good daily 

 paper, and a good agricultural magazine, besides bujnng his 

 wife as handsome a silk wardrobe as she has had since the 

 day of her marriage. And if there are ponds on the farm 



