154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the other day, that, on the State Farm at Westborough, the 

 hajdng was not finished until the first of October. The farmer 

 may be a good manager of the boys ; but I doubt his ability to 

 conduct a farm of the value and importance of that one. I 

 believe in early cut hay : I believe in preparing it well for the 

 cattle. I do not believe it is possible to get good milk with- 

 out good feed. I do not think there is any thing cheaper 

 to make milk than corn-fodder. If you can raise as much 

 forage from an acre of corn as you can from an acre of grass, 

 I say raise it, and feed it to your cows. 



One word in regard to pastures. I agree fully with what 

 has been said about harrowing pastures and sowing grass- 

 seed ; but I want to say that there are thousands of acres in 

 Massachusetts that you could not get a harrow over if you 

 tried. The best way to get over that difQculty is to give up 

 your pastures, and keep your cows in the barn. I can say 

 that the three or four best herds of cows I have seen this 

 summer — and I have seen a good many — are cows that are 

 kept in the barn all the time, except that they are turned out, 

 perhaps an hour or two at mid-day, to take a little air and 

 exercise. I believe, that, where you have arable land, the 

 cultivation of that, and feeding the cows in the stable, is the 

 cheapest way. If any farmer has pastures of the character 

 to which Mr. Flint referred, I think it is better economy for 

 him to let them grow up pines, alders, and birches, and he 

 can cut twenty cords to the acre once in twenty years. I 

 think if our friend here has gone up from two cows to ten 

 by soiling chiefly, he has done a good thing. I think that is 

 a movement in the right direction. 



Mr. McGeegor. About a mile and a half from here, I 

 own a farm of about twenty-seven acres, that I bought about 

 seven years ago. It was so run down that it took every dol- 

 lar I could find anywhere, or borrow, or beg, to buy hay and 

 grain to supj)ort the animals I put on that farm. There was 

 a place on that farm that I declare to you — and those who 

 know the farm will bear me witness ■ — would not support a 

 grasshopper. Now I cut my two crops of grass yearly from 

 that same land. I commenced on that farm almost in the 

 dark. Although not a young man, I might well be called a 

 young farmer ; for seven years is the length of my exj)erience. 

 The first thing I did was to buy some manure. I saw that 



