CONDITION OF AGRICULTURE. 325 



Massachusetts at the present day purchases for consumption 

 in other markets one-half of the provisions she consumes. She 

 brings upon her soil a crop equal to that she grows. Possessing 

 the components of her own and of her purchased crop, it is 

 bad husbandry not to supply her soil with the elements of fer- 

 tility which half her consumption withdraws. Her importation 

 of foreign manures can hardly be justified by the example of 

 England, since that nation imports but one-sixth of her con- 

 sumption against the one-half purchased by us. 



The aid given to the cause of agriculture by the improvement 

 of farming implements has already been alluded to. The reap- 

 ing machines, which have excited so much interest in England 

 and France, have added much to the mechanical reputation of 

 the country, while they have by their adoption materially les- 

 sened the cost of production. The necessity of obtaining the 

 improved implements hardly needs be stated where labor enters 

 so largely into the necessities of the farmer. A just economy 

 will be sufficiently suggestive of duty in this particular. 



It is to be hoped that the goal of invention in agricultural 

 implements has not been reached, and that the time is not dis- 

 tant when the general use of the hand-hoe will be discontinued. 

 The expense of hoeing makes too large an item in the cost of 

 producing Indian corn. Tnc mode of stirring the soil by the 

 hand-hoe has no advantages over other methods now practised, 

 and there would seem to be no reason why the labor of man 

 should not, in this department of agriculture, give place to that 

 of the horse. Horse-hoeing among other crops is of common 

 practice. It can be adapted to corn and potatoes, as well as to 

 turnips and other white crops. 



Our duty to improve and protect manufactures, as well as 

 agriculture, may well allow us to call upon the former to sup- 

 ply the desideratum of a practical implement for this purpose, 

 and to offer to American genius a suitable reward for the inven- 

 tion. There can be no doubt that a sufficient stimulus is alone 

 wanting to induce the mechanics of our own society to prepare 

 a hoe that will largely reduce the expense of cultivatiiig the 

 two leading tillage crops of New England. 



The attention bestowed upon the growing crops do not com- 

 plete the duties of husbandry. The crops, when grown, are to 

 be disposed of, and it is here that the discretion, intelligence 



