62 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



NORFOLK. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



Your committee add, that it affords them no small satisfac- 

 tion to witness the interest manifested in the " Ploughing 

 Match." They consider this as an indication of the interest 

 felt by the public on this subject — as an indication of the 

 growing conviction, in the community at- large, of the great 

 benefits resulting from deep and thorough ploughing. It is 

 extremely desirable that every farmer should understand how 

 much both the qualit/j and quantity of crops are affected by 

 rightly preparing the soil for the reception of the seed. When 

 it is considered, for example, that, instead of twenty or thirty 

 bushels of corn to the acre, as was the common crop under the 

 former method of shallow ploughing, tliere can be raised upon 

 the same ground, under the present improved mode of cultivation, 

 forty, sixty, eighty, and, in some cases, even an hundred bushels 

 to the acre, the great advantage of the latter method must be 

 apparent to every candid and reflecting mind ; and, although 

 all do not adopt it, it is, nevertheless, a pleasing consideration, 

 that the number of those who do adopt it is increasino™. 



The former Lieutenant-Governor Robbins, on a public occa- 

 sion, remarked, " that it was the work of an age to establish a 

 principle. ^^ It is the work of an age to introduce and establish 

 a new principle and practice in agriculture. We are now 

 doing such a work. Our society, by its public exhibitions, by 

 its annual reports, and in various other ways, is aifording 

 essential aid toward the accomplishment of this important 

 object. 



Ralph Sanger, Chairman. 



