108 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



Want of system in agriculture leads to loss of time 

 and increase of expense. System has chief reference 

 to the succession of crops; to sufficiency of hands, and 

 to selection of instruments. As to the succession of 

 crops, called rotation, almost the only plan of our 

 farmers is to get their lands into grass as soon as pos- 

 sible, and then to keep them in grass as long as pos- 

 sible. The consequence of this practice, — for it 

 deserves not the name of a system — is to lead to the 

 disuse, or rather to the least possible use, of that great 

 source of agricultural riches, the plough. Accordingly, 

 it has almost become a maxim that the plough is the 

 most expensive of all instruments. And so it is, and so 

 it must be, as the business of our farms is managed. 

 By keeping lands down to grass as long as possible, 

 that is as long as the hay produce will pay for mowing, 

 the consequence is that our lands, when we are obliged, 

 reluctantly, to put the plough into them, are bound and 

 matted and cross-barred with an impervious, inextric- 

 able, infrangible web of root and sod. Hence, results 

 a grand process, called "a breaking up," with four, five 

 or six head of cattle, as the case may be; with three 

 men, one at the ox-head, one at the plough-beam, and 

 the third at the plough handle. Is there any wonder 

 that such a ploughing apparatus is an object of aver- 

 sion? It is impossible for any man to witness a 

 "breaking up," of this kind, without being forcibly 

 reminded of the reflection made by a dry Dutch com- 

 mentator on that passage in the book of Kings, where 

 it is said that Elisha was found "ploughing with twelve 

 yoke of oxen." "Well," said the commentator, "it is 

 no wonder that Elisha was glad to quit ploughing for 

 prophesying, if he could not break up with less than 

 twelve yoke of oxen." 



In fact the plough is the natural instrument of the 

 farmer's prosperity, and the system of every farmer 

 ought to have reference to facilitating and increasing 

 its use. Let a rotation be adopted embracing two or 



