2 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



were confined to Essex County, we should be ready to infer that 

 the fault might not be so much in the system as in the unfortu- 

 nate administration of it. But this supposition is precluded by 

 the fact, that the history of other societies is nearly the same. 

 Thus of the sixteen agricultural societies in the State in 1854, 

 only five found a single claimant for farm management. It is 

 true, certain specific improvements on many farms in our 

 county were made, as reported in that year, for which the 

 trustees awarded premiums and gratuities to the amount of 

 three hundred and twenty-six dollars ; but while the society 

 still looks with favor upon efforts to reclaim meadows, pasture 

 land, <fec., the grand idea is to induce every farmer to improve 

 and manage his whole farm better from year to year. We have 

 had the showy productions exhibited, and have been gratified ; 

 but has this l^een a fair exponent of the whole, and especially 

 of the part left at home ? A beautiful heifer is taken from the 

 drove and prepared for exhibition ; but is she a good represent- 

 ative of the cows left l)ehind ? Our committees are delighted 

 with the forest trees and the orchards upon a given farm, liut 

 what was the condition of the farm itself? 



Now, it is true, tlie farmer must begin a system of improve- 

 ments somewhere, if he begins at all ; he must take one thing 

 at a time ; but will he stop there long ? Does not one pleasant 

 spot raise the desire for another and another ? If not, there is 

 something wrong. And may it not too often l^e the case, 

 particularly with regard to animals, that the petted creature 

 taken to the show, is the result of accident and not of training ? 

 It was the remark of a judicious farmer not many years since, 

 one who had paid much attention to the improvement of his 

 stock, vet who never exhibited a single animal, that if farmers 

 woiild drive their whole stock of cattle to the show, then he 

 would drive liis. His idea was, that no improvements which 

 failed of reaching all the farmer had, were worthy the name of 

 improvements. And so, whatever may have been done on the 

 meadow, the pasture, or the forest, if the great body of the 

 farm is proportionably neglected, the real gain must have been 

 small. These remarks are intended to throw additional light 

 upon the subject of the better management of the farm — the 

 whole farm, large or small. How shall the society effect an 

 object so noble as this ? Money Avill not do it. If thirty 



