FORAGE CROPS IN NEW ENGLAND. 167 



The smoothing-liarrow, with its seventy-two fine steel teeth 

 sweeping a breadth of ten feet, will cover the seed ; while 

 the iron roller, to follow, will settle tlie small stones, and 

 smooth the surface so quickly, that one accustomed only to 

 the old-fashioned tools and methods would almost doubt if 

 he had really been at work. 



I will call your attention to but one other point. I know 

 that some of you have mentally asked the question, Where 

 is the manure coming from to dress all these acres kept so 

 constantly under the plough? 



I may say, that, for several years past, I have made it a 

 rule to apply a dressing for every crop put in, whether it is 

 once, twice, or three times in a year. That portion of the 

 farm lying near the stables is manured chiefly with animal 

 manure ; while that at a greater distance is dressed with 

 purchased fertilizers solely. I was once prejudiced against 

 purchased fertilizers, because they appeared unreliable ; but 

 since the manufacturers have learned their business better, 

 and the State has set a guard over their operations, so that 

 it has become possible to buy honest fertilizers that are 

 made and sold upon business principles, as other commodi- 

 ties are made and sold, I have come to consider the arti- 

 ficially-prepared, concentrated fertilizer the powerful lever 

 by which the intelligent farmers are going to be able to 

 completely upset and revolutionize the prevailing sentiment 

 concerning New-England agriculture. 



When the laws which govern plant-nutrition are as fully 

 known and observed as they should be, I doubt not that our 

 Massachusetts farms will bear constant cultivation and crop- 

 ping, without recourse to outside influences; but I know that 

 even now a run-down farm can be speedily and economically 

 brought up to a productive condition by using its own re- 

 sources, supplemented by well-selected commercial fertilizers. 



It is claimed by some, that the growing and turning-under 

 of green crops is the cheapest method of improving a run- 

 down farm ; but, where forage crops are in such demand for 

 cattle-food a^ they are in Massachusetts, it does not appear 

 to be the better way. 



If the ideas I have brought to your attention this after- 

 noon are not visionary, but practicable, and worthy of ex- 

 tended consideration or general adoption, then I think we 



