SECRETARY'S REPORT. 401 



we read of such productions as are here reported, — of four and 

 five hundred hushcls of potatoes to the acre, — carrying our 

 thoughts back to ancient days and winter-evening feasts around 

 the home fireside ; — and of cabbages which would fill a two- 

 bushel basket, offering to the Dutchman the grateful prospect 

 of a sufficiency of sour-crout for him, at least, for a twelve- 

 month. Our curiosity also is quickened, if our credulity be 

 not staggered, when we are told that such crops are here 

 grown by manure collected without the cost and care of keeping 

 a large stock of cattle ; and see that, in proof of this fact, the 

 method pursued by the farmer, to whom was awarded the first 

 premium for a crop of corn from four acres, is referred to with 

 confidence. Certainly such a crop could not have been grown 

 without a sufficiency of fertilizing matter of the proper sort 

 We thank the committee for the suggestion, which cannot be 

 too often repeated, nor too widely disseminated, that " the most 

 grievous error of our farmers is the waste of manure," and 

 that, " with equal care, almost any one may " — in proportion to 

 his meaus — "equal" the possession of "him who counts his 

 fertilizers by the hundred loads." Perhaps the valuable essay 

 on " the wastes of the farm," by a retiring and much esteemed 

 member of this Board, may have brought this subject more 

 forcibly to the minds of the committee. We have had occasion 

 to know that it has produced a similar effect in other cases, and 

 we cannot but hope that its lessons of instruction and admoni- 

 tion will be heeded in every agricultural community. 



The farmers of southern Berkshire are not inattentive to the 

 importance and value of reclaimed lands. Several large tracts 

 of such land, already reclaimed or in process of reclamation, 

 had been so altered and improved, during the year, as'to entitle 

 their owners to the premiums offered by the society. Among 

 them, we observe with pleasure, that one was awarded — for the 

 greatest improvement of three acres — to the gentleman who 

 represents the society at tiiis Board. 



We fully accord with tlie committee in their recommendation 

 of a top-dressing of loam, sand, or fine gravel upon reclaimed 

 swamps, and in their suggestion that some added material is 

 necessary, at short intervals, " to keep these lands in a good 

 state of productiveness, and in the finer qualities of grass." 



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