30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



precisely what is grown elsewhere. When I commenced farm- 

 ing in New England, I followed the beaten track. I commenced 

 growing corn, and continued it until I convinced myself 

 thoroughly, that although I could produce from 75 to 85 

 bushels to the acre, without any very unusual outlay, where the 

 soil is good, I could buy that corn much cheaper than I could 

 produce it. That is to say, the same amount of labor that is 

 expended upon a field of corn, and which absolutely must be 

 expended, if we would get a good crop, will pay very much better 

 if expended in the raising of cabbages or roots. I do not mean 

 to say that it will not pay, ordinarily, to raise corn, but I say 

 that it will pay so much better to raise other things, that we had 

 better, in my opinion, leave corn, as we leave wheat, to those 

 who have more land, smoother fields, and greater facilities for 

 the use of machinery, and devote our land, and especially our 

 manure, to producing that which will pay us more money. 



Precisely how the impression is to be produced among New 

 England farmers generally, that they must cultivate in a better 

 way, cultivate more thoroughly, cultivate for better results, it is 

 difficult to say, for there are prejudices among them which, as 

 all who have encountered them know, it is very difficult to 

 remove. I do not believe that anything very effective can be 

 done except by example. We must get certain men, here and 

 there, to do at least a small amount of work in the way that we 

 believe to be best, and by the example of these specimens of 

 good cultivation on a small scale, produce an impression that 

 may have a lasting effect upon the communi ty ; for the moment 

 we show that there is a profit in any transaction, that moment 

 we have started a movement that will never stop. Our neigh- 

 bors may scoff at our processes when we first introduce them ; 

 and if they fail (as perhaps they may), they will continue their 

 scoffing ; but if they succeed, there is an end to all objection. 

 However stolid they may have been in opposition, they will not 

 only accept the suggestion and follow it out most carefully, but 

 they will firmly believe, themselves, that they have done it all 

 their lives. 



Probably nothing better can be done to produce the effect 

 that I speak of than to secure a perfectly good seeding down of 

 land to grass. Any intelligent farmer will appreciate the fact 

 that land that will produce two and a half tons of hay to the 



