FORAGE CROPS IN NEW ENGLAND. 175 



own. He has been at work all the fall getting off some of 

 his old wall that is not more than three feet wide, and 

 putting the stones under ground. I should be glad to give 

 my walls to him, if he would take them off; but he won't do 

 it, and I certainly will not do it. I believe in the doctrine 

 of no fences. 



I will not pursue that subject any farther, because I want 

 to call up the subject of wheat, which has been alluded to. 

 If Mr. Grinnell is in the house — he knows something about 

 wheat ; and I want him to give some facts, and some of his 

 experiments. 



Mr. Grinnell (of Greenfield). I am afraid I shall not 

 be able to speak with any definiteness, or with such particu- 

 larity as you should have ; for, as has been remarked by 

 more than one of our speakers, accurate statements are 

 what we want. This guessing at measurements, or giving 

 estimates, is not what we should have. 



The matter of growing wheat has interested me in com- 

 mon with other farmers in Franklin County, which is the 

 first agricultural county in the State, acre for acre — with due 

 deference to the Old Colony. I am happy and proud to say 

 that Franklin County raises more wheat than all the rest 

 of Massachusetts; and I was also happy to find that there 

 was a missionary at work down here, in the popular president 

 of this county society, who has been urging the growing of 

 wheat. I believe that wheat may be grown with profit, to a 

 certain extent. Not, by any means, that I would advise any 

 man, or wish any man, to take wheat as his main crop ; but 

 our farming in New England, our farming in Massachusetts, 

 is eminently a mixed farming. That is the only way in 

 which we can well succeed. We have, perhaps, some crops 

 rather more special than others; but we must take every 

 thing. We make our butter, we grow our potatoes, our corn 

 (mostly), our rye ; and it is, I think, advisable that almost 

 every man should grow some wheat. Every agricultural 

 community — I tell you it is an axiom upon which you may 

 depend — should raise at least a very considerable portion 

 of the materials which are to supply its own people. It is 

 not to be expected, that, with Our large population of non- 

 producers, we should, on our own territory, grow wheat 

 enough to support them all ; but a certain amount might be 

 profitably grown by many, very many, farmers. 



