154 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



DESIRABLE IMPROVEMENTS IK THE AG- 

 RICULTURE OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY. 



Prize Essay, by W. Livermoke. 



An Athenian, being asked concerning the necessary requisite 

 to successful oratory, replied : ".In the first place, action ; in the 

 second place, action ; in the third place action;" and if one 

 were now asked the same question applied to agriculture, he 

 might as strongly reply "Fertility." 



The farmer who is determined to make a manifest success of 

 his life and calling, to have agriculture the better for his having 

 engaged in it, asks first of all, " If my land is not at its max- 

 imum fertility, how shall I put and keep it there ? " He places 

 this question and its solution above ease, above mere utility, 

 above display or accumulated property. That our soil has not 

 been thus consulted, our impoverished fields and diminished re- 

 turns plainly declare. With each generation the smart young 

 man or men, of the family, having well skimmed the old home- 

 stead, move westward or city-ward, leaving the worn-out land to 

 be tilled by worn-out men, or by the nerveless, inefficient, 

 " never-get-out-of-the-rut " portion of every community. Ex- 

 ceptions to this, happily, are growing less and less rare, and we 

 trust as agriculture feels the march of intellect, as culture and 

 science elevate and ennoble her walks, our native young men 

 will stay by the old farms, and we shall see them cultivated, not 

 for the results of five years or twenty, but for a lifetime, to be 

 handed down to children and to children's children. This cul- 

 tivation from father to son has largely contributed toward plac- 

 ing England's agriculture in the van, and its interests in our 

 country demand its repetition in our older States. No more fit- 

 ting State could be found to inaugurate this system than Massa. 

 chusetts — always first in every good work, — no more fitting 

 county of that State than old Hampshire, possessed of men, 



