PLA:^^ of EXPERBIENTS. 175 



their interests would be helped to keep pace with the other 

 interests of Massachusetts ; and all combined, each successfully- 

 prosecuted, one would aid the others. Where agriculture, 

 commerce, manufactures and the arts all flourish, there is a 

 model State. May this be true of Massachusetts. 



I will venture to suggest a plan, simple yet practical, to 

 test not only various manures, but on various crops, one of 

 which, flax, was formerly raised here, but is now limited. We 

 are dependent upon foreign countries for a supply to keep 

 our mills in operation, and if it can be successfully raised 

 here, and at a cost to compete with the imported, with an 

 ample stock constantly in the market, the manufacture would 

 increase, furnishing employment in the manufacture of the 

 article, as well as improvements to our farms in furnishing 

 a crop for which we have a home market, with a prospect 

 of a steady increase in the demand. 



Could this be carried out there would be no occasion to 

 turn our attention from our depleted, soils to others to exhaust, 

 but renovate our own, — and it can be done, — and our farms 

 worked and increased in value ; and as a consequence of it, 

 wealth and population added to the State. 



The Agricultural College is doing vast good, its benefits to 

 the community^ at large are unspeakable, and are as yet but 

 the opening leaf, to be followed in due time by the full ear. 

 It has awakened an interest not confined to Massachusetts in 

 the manufacture of sugar from beets, and the results of the 

 experiments on this crop, to be followed, we hope, with expe- 

 riments on other crops with various manures, will be looked 

 for with interest not only by our own farmers of Massachu- 

 chusetts, but the whole Union. 



