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so limited a scale that it would scarcely have deserved notice, 

 but that I wish earnestly to attract the attention of the farmers 

 to this subject. As yet it has hardly received any considera- 

 tion ; yet where circumstances are favorable to it, its results are 

 among the most beneficial. It must be the case in respect to 

 many drained meadows that by a dam and gate at the outlet, 

 they might in a dry time be flooded at pleasure and to great 

 advantage. The keeping of the water upon meadows through 

 the winter by flooding them has proved injurious, destroying 

 the artificial grasses, and either leaving the ground naked or 

 bringing in the coarse aquatic grasses, which are worthless. 



21. A great improvement has taken place throughout the 

 county in the construction of barns. Few farmers now think of 

 building a barn or stable without having under it a commodi- 

 ous cellar for the manure, where it is protected from the sun 

 and air and rain. Some have added to their yards a well, in 

 which the liquid manure from the yard is collected, and by a 

 pump is occasionally thrown again upon the compost heap. 

 All this is commendable ; and such provisions for the saving of 

 the manure soon pay for themselves many times over. The 

 strongest indication of an improved, and the surest indication 

 of a successful husbandry, is in the sedulous care which is 

 taken to protect and increase the manure heap. 



22. I ought not to quit the subject of agricultural improve- 

 ments in Middlesex county, without adverting to the subject of 



ploughing land ; and to an improvement in this matter, the 

 advantages of which, if it had not its origin here, have been 

 exemplified in this county. The first ploughing match in the 

 United Stales, took place under the direction of the Massachu- 

 setts Society for promoting agriculture in Brighton in this 

 county, in 1817; and these ploughing matches, which now an- 

 nually take place in every county where there is an Agricultu- 

 ral Show, have been of the most essential service in improving 

 the form and making of ploughs and the art of ploughing. 

 Perfection is as yet very far from being reached, but in com- 

 paring, as many of us are able to do, a field after being plough- 



