THE FARMER'S RELATIONS TO THE STATE. 45 



with the country and the farm. Especially if, with these, aid 

 in the household be as freely furnished to the wife and mother 

 as to the farmer himself on the meadows and in the fields. 



And these things, which I now suggest as worthy of your 

 attention, are not in the line of useless expenditure and 

 extravagance, but are strictly in the line of that economy and 

 thrift which pertain to the highest interests of the home 

 and of the State. 



If there be any home that should be attractive in its 

 exterior appointments ; if there be any lawn which is broad 

 and green and smoothly mown and beautifully adorned with 

 shrubs and flowers — that home and that lawn should be in the 

 country and on the farm, where there is ample space and 

 ample time to secure these things, even without withholding 

 labor from the ploughing, the sowing, or the reaping. And 

 I am sure that no investment of time and labor in the work of 

 the farm would, in the end, yield a more satisfactory return 

 than this investment which I have now suggested. 



Another thing worthy of still more attention than it now 

 receives, is the hay-crop. Farmers, as a general thing, mow 

 too much ground, and as a Avhole they cut too little hay. 



The hay-crop is the second great crop of our country, and 

 might easily be the first. But its great importance is not 

 even now fully appreciated, as the means for its increase are 

 comparatively little used. 



It appears that the hay-fields of Massachusetts to-day yield 

 something less than a ton to the acre. Now, within five years, 

 this yield should be fully doubled, thus greatly adding to the 

 income of the farmers and the wealth of the State. And the 

 farmer has the means at his own command to secure the great 

 result. He needs but to drain his swamps and his bogs, and 

 raise clover and timothy where he now grows alders and bull- 

 rushes. He needs but save with strictest economy all the 

 fertilizers from the house and from the barn ; to bring to his 

 yards at the close of each day all his cattle from the pastures 

 and the fields ; to keep the floors of his stalls well supplied 

 with loam, and his yards with muck from the bog; and then 

 to apply all to the lauds with the greatest judgment and care. 

 Oh, when shall we learn the value of fertilizers to the fiirm 

 and to the nation 1 There is no waste on the farm nor in the 



