WELL BEGUN, HALF WELL DONE. 387 



after the owner had used nearly one ton for feed for 

 his cows, the purchaser agreeing to take it at the barn 

 where it is now stored. 



"I consider salt hay, when cut from marshes that 

 have been ditched, where the grass is thick and the yield 

 large, to be worth as much as the average of upland 

 hay ; that cows thrive as well, and give as much milk, 

 as when fed with Timothy grass and clover hay. It is 

 my belief that all marshes can be made more produc- 

 tive by thorough draining, at a very small expense. I 

 intend, next autumn, to cut ditches upon my own 

 marsh between those heretofore made. My opinion 

 is unchanged, that the sods are worth as much as the 

 expense of ditching, when within one mile of the farm 

 where they are to be used." 



This subject ought to receive the careful attention 

 of the enterprising farmer. Even a farmer of very 

 limited means may do something each year towards 

 improving his pasture lands. He may lessen the area 

 of the bushes; he may plough up a small piece, at least, 

 and seed down at once with grass-seed and winter rye, 

 either in the spring or in the fall, and in either case his 

 stock will fare enough better to pay for it ; and the 

 next year he may take another piece in the same pas- 

 ture, till the whole is finished, when it will carry more 

 stock, and more stock will give him more manure, and 

 more manure will increase the fertility of other lands, 

 and increased fertility will add to his means of further 

 improvement. The difficulty with most small farmers 

 is to begin. Well begun is half well done ; for, the 

 moment any real improvement is begun in earnest, 

 the interest is excited, the mental activity is in- 

 creased, the desire for improvement partakes the 

 nature of a passion ; and hence, though the begin- 



