326 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



and judgment of the farmer will be required. If they are main- 

 ly sold from the farm, the elements of fertility are sold with 

 them. It may almost be said the soil itself is sold. If they 

 are consumed on the land, or their proceeds returned to it in 

 manure, the fertility of the soil is maintained, and its capacity 

 for production perpetuated. 



The best disposition of the crop is to feed it to stock, and the 

 high price of butcher's meat would see.m to assure a profit to 

 the operation. Sheep have of late grown unpopular in Massa- 

 chusetts, — falling off fifty per cent, since 1840, — and this, not- 

 withstanding wool is higher in the United States than in any 

 other part of the commercial world. 



A writer on British agriculture can scarcely be found who 

 does not contend that sheep are the most profitable stock that 

 can be raised upon a farm ; and, in computing the expense of 

 maintaining sheep, it can be shown that the increased cost of 

 wintering them in this climate is fully met by the increased 

 price of land in England, joined to other well-known charges 

 upon her industry. In the face of the existing prejudice against 

 the growth of sheep in this State, it may well be questioned if 

 any one step on the part of the farmer would contribute more 

 to his interest than the raising of good breeds of sheep, adapted 

 equally for wool and for food. 



In all the departments of agriculture, and in the general 

 practice of the science, we are young compared with the nations 

 of other continents. The selection of the most suitable crops 

 for our varied climate ; the adoption of the best mode of cul- 

 ture and the most profitable use of our productions, are facts 

 that time and experience will make familiar. Under our insti- 

 tutions, and with our advantages, aided by the peculiar energy 

 of our people, we may look for a career as useful in the arts of 

 domestic life, as our national example has been cheering to the 

 aspirations of the human race. 



