166 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



carted to the best tillage-land, will bring him a far gi-eater 

 return than if dropped among coarse weeds and worthless 

 bushes, or left to dry upon the surface of the very best 

 pasture. 



Good pasture, when it can be had, is unexcelled as food 

 for cattle ; but the season for the best pasture-feed is very 

 short, especially in unfavorable years. After-feed in mowing- 

 fields can rarely be pastured with profit, where the mowing- 

 machine can run unobstructedly ; certainly not if the cost of 

 fencing is taken into the account. 



Growing forage crops as a specialty will enable farmers to 

 double or quadruple their stock, or divide and subdivide 

 their farms. It will enable a State to increase its farm- 

 stock and its rural population several fold. 



A denser rural population will improve the social charac- 

 ter, and increase the political influence, of country towns. 

 The system well carried out will greatly diminish the cost 

 of ordinary operations, while the net profits will be increased. 



The difference between the cost of ploughing, cultivating, 

 and harvesting, in large or small fields, may make all the 

 difference between profit or loss. 



At Pine Hedge Farm the plough can now turn furrows 

 sixty rods in length ; and whether using the plough, harrow, 

 or cultivator, a day's work in the field always equals two 

 days spent in the small garden-patch. 



I cannot leave this subject without alluding to the economy 

 of having good tools for working large, smooth fields. The 

 production of forage crops as a specialty is best adapted to 

 plain, easily-worked land, such as largely prevails in this 

 section of the State ; and no one should expect the best 

 results, unless he first puts his land into good condition for 

 running the improved modern implements of tillage. The 

 swivel-plough will leave a smooth, level surface, requiring 

 neither cross-ploughing nor cross-harrowing to fit it for the 

 reception of the seed. The disk harrow will enable one to 

 put upon a recently-turned sod any crop which would 

 formerly have been considered only adaj)ted to an old culti- 

 vated field. The machines for sowing grain and grass-seed 

 will do in an hour work that without them would require 

 several hours of hand-labor, while the machines leave the 

 seed much more evenly scattered. 



