18 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



believed that the increased value of the subsequent grass crops 

 will more than compensate for the additional expense. 



Too little attention is paid by farmers to the renovation and 

 maintenance of their pasture lands. In Plymouth County, 

 where there are considerable tracts of land of indifferent quality, 

 not readily available for any agricultural purposes except pas- 

 turage, where labor is scarce and manure cannot easily be pro- 

 cured, as it may be in the vicinity of cities and large towns, the 

 practice of soiling will not obtain to any great extent. During 

 some six months' in every twelve cattle must be their own pur- 

 veyors, and fortunate is he whose own and whose neighbors' 

 fences are sufficient to prevent a succession of predatory raids 

 across his borders. The farmer who neglects his pastures must 

 incur additional expense in fencing them, and increased cost in 

 wintering his cattle, ill-fed during the summer. 



It is quite too common to hear farmers say they can winter 

 more stock than they can summer, while, at the same time, their 

 pastures are the favorite resorts of whortleberry gatherers, or 

 the chosen haunts of burrowing animals, which find ample 

 security amid tangled masses of ferns, briers and laurels. 

 Nature delights in wildness, and however thoroughly subdued, 

 for the time, by her cunning opponent, Art, she is ever alert to 

 regain her lost supremacy, planting a brier, a bush or a tree, 

 wherever the slightest indication of supineness on the part of 

 her skilful antagonist will warrant the effort. By constant vig- 

 ilance only can the inroads of these unwelcome visitors be 

 prevented. A persistent use of the scythe will so reduce their 

 vitality as to render their presence comparatively harmless. 

 August is generally recognized as the best month for this opera- 

 tion. Many careful observers are of the opinion that bushes 

 can be more effectually subdued by being cut on the decrease of 

 the moon than at any other time. Reasons why such should be 

 the result are not apparent. But if it is a recognized fact that 

 vegetation is differently affected by different relativp positions of 

 the earth and moon, the philosophy underlying the fact is not of 

 paramount importance to practical men. And it is not always 

 wise to disregard or reject popular conclusions, merely because 

 they arc not fortified by any plausible theory. One thing may 

 be safely affirmed, viz. : bushes which arc invariably cut close to 



