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The first is that ships are continually loading at our wharves 

 for the transportation of bones and other substances to Europe 

 for manure ; and the second is that we are willing to sell our 

 ashes to the farmers of Long Island, N. Y., who can afford to 

 visit all our seaports for that purpose, and find an advantage in 

 even scouring the shores for the whole length and breadth of 

 Lake Champlain in Vermont, for the same objects. They go 

 even to Canada for ashes, leached or crude, and transmit it by 

 canal to New York. Where is our enterprise ? If they can 

 afford to do this, cannot we find an advantage in using these 

 materials ourselves, while we have them on hand ? 



XIII. Agricultupal Improvements. — Though in a great 

 degree in its general aspect unpromising, yet no county in the 

 State is more distinguished for its agricultural improvements 

 than Middlesex. It exhibits many beautiful examples of the 

 triumph of labor and art over nature ; in which valleys have 

 been filled, rough places smoothed, and the desert made 

 to bloom. All these are the achievements of an improved hus- 

 bandry, and exhibit the most ample compensatory returns of la- 

 bor directed by skill and capital expended with sound discretion. 

 I do not know where I should in preference take a farmer, to show 

 him what may be done under discouraging circumstances, and 

 therefore what he may accomplish in improving his own 

 husbandry. 



1. In the district of West Cambridge, and to the west of seve- 

 ral ponds which adorn this beautiful region, there is a tract of 

 country exhibiting as much labor, skill and success in the cul- 

 tivation, and as much improvement, as are to be found in New 

 England. It is principally the residence of many market-gar- 

 deners, who supply the city with fruit and early vegetables. — 

 In these sheltered situations, they are successful almost beyond 

 competition in bringing forward their vegetables early in the 

 season, and reap a rich harvest from their enterprise. Much of 

 this country had at one time little to recommend it, being re- 

 garded as a thin and sterile soil ; but the estimation in which 

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