148 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I am reminded of the story of a little boy who asked his 

 father if he might go off with a party of other boys for 

 huckleberries. The father gave his consent, and also some 

 good advice. Said he, " Now, Johnny, when you get to the 

 huckleberry-pasture, you will hear some of the boys say, ' Oh, 

 how thick they grow here ! come and pick with me.' And 

 another will call out, ' Come and see what a lot of them I 

 have found ! ' And you will see some of the children spending 

 half their time running from bush to bush over the. pasture, 

 trying to find the thickest picking. Now, when you find a 

 bush, or clump of bushes, on which the berries are fairly thick, 

 begin to pick, and fill your basket as though you intended 

 business, and sti<3k to that place till you have picked all the 

 ripe berries that are worth picking, and don't spend your 

 time looking for thicker berries, so long as you find fairly- 

 good picking where you are." The boy heeded the advice 

 of his father ; and it is needless to say, that, when the children 

 returned, Johnny had more berries to carry than any of his 

 comrades whp had been continually finding better picking, 

 but who lacked the patience to stick to their business. Could 

 the boys of New Enghmd for the past two or three genera- 

 tions have been taught to believe in New-England soil as 

 some of us believe in it to-day, and could they have been in- 

 duced to apply the same energy, skill, and capital that they 

 have used in developing the West, what a picture would New 

 England now present ! We are talking of establishing, at 

 great cost, a large park somewhere in the suburbs of Boston 

 (doubtless a very desirable thing to do) ; but if the farms of 

 Massachusetts for a hundred years past could have been cul- 

 tivated as some farms are cultivated to-day, and with profit 

 too, Boston might now have had a park that would have been 

 limited only b}" State lines. 



Massachusetts is a thrifty State. For density of popula- 

 tion she stands first in rank among all her sister-States, and 

 sixth among all the countries of the world ; and yet, if the 

 State were to be divided equally among all her inhabitants, 

 there would be over three acres for each man, woman, and 

 child, or a twelve-acre farm for each family of four persons. 

 Should not such an area do more towards producing the 

 food consumed in the State ? The truth is, we buy nearly 

 all our flour, most of our meat, much of our butter and 



