FORAGE CROPS IN NEW ENGLAND. 145 



GROWING AND FEEDING FORAGE CROPS IN NEW ENGLAND. 



BY A. W. CHEEVEB. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, — I may say, 

 in opening the subject assigned for discussion this afternoon, 

 that, having spent fifty years on one of the most forbidding 

 farms originally that can be found in Massachusetts, I have 

 learned to have faith in New-England agriculture. 



I believe that here in Massachusetts a young man who has 

 a taste for the business, one who loves the soil as a good 

 sailor loves the sea, can, by intelligent industry joined with 

 a reasonable degree of prudence and thrift, attain a success" 

 such as the majority of men engaged in other occupations 

 would consider enviable. 



Not that all mechanics or tradesmen would desire to 

 exchange places with the farmer, and accept all his burdens, 

 and butt against all the obstacles he may have to contend 

 with during his career (for many may feel that they would 

 be incompetent to meet and overcome them) ; but they would 

 be glad, if it were possible, to exchange final results, — to 

 accept the farmer's well-tilled acres ; his fat oxen ; his thrifty, 

 well-trained steers ; his deep-milking cows ; his promising 

 heifers ; his well-bred sheep, swine, and poultry ; his loaded 

 fruit-trees ; his neatly-kept garden, with its wholesome vege- 

 tables, luscious fruits, and beautiful flowers, — in short, his 

 New-England country home as a whole. Indeed, such a 

 home as many farmers have, and more might have, is the 

 life dream and hope of many a merchant and mechanic who 

 will end his days amid the rattle of paved streets and the 

 din of a busy city with hopes and dreams unrealized. 



I admit that legitimate farming in New England can give 

 little promise of a very large money-return above a generous 

 living, and a good education for the rising generation ; but I 

 count this lightly against the business, for I am told that 

 history tells of tribes of people who knew nothing of what 

 we call money, and yet whose enjoyment of life without it 

 might be the envy of the millionnaire. 



With the American people, who have had a new country 

 to subdue and develop, activity and enterprise are charac- 

 teristics that have been bred in the bone. The healthy 

 Yankee boy finds that energy, and ambition to do, is a part 

 of his nature, and a controlling power. 



