6 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



be, as it were, locked up, and therefore useless. On the 

 other hand, corresponding to the stock-raiser, is the storage- 

 dealer, who, in a place where rent is low, is enabled with 

 profit to furnish accommodation for goods at less cost than 

 the seller can keep them on hand, and whose gain is there- 

 fore room. 



Between the two extremes represented by the market-gar- 

 den and the stock-farm lie means infinite in number and 

 minute in degree ; one of which is the milk-farm, involving, 

 as properly conducted, the whole science of the soiling of 

 cattle, and the best methods of breeding for milk; often 

 carried on in connection with the raising of roots and veg- 

 etables, both for the market and for consumption upon the 

 farm. Such is the character of my own estate. Lying half 

 way between the markets of Lynn and Salem, with facilities 

 for procuring fertilizers at a moderate cost, I yet find it 

 advantageous to provide for an additional supply by main- 

 taining live-stock upon the place. For the sake of per- 

 spicuity of statement, I may say that the part of my farm 

 devoted to the production of milk receives its renewal of 

 fertility from the dozen head of cattle in my barn, aided by 

 the necessary complement of swine ; while the waste result- 

 ing from the growth of marketable produce is supplied from 

 the stables and barnyards of the city. In order to preserve 

 the equilibrium of fertility throughout the sixty acres of 

 arable land contained in the farm, it is further necessary so 

 to change the location of the vegetable garden year by year, 

 that in a given length of time the whole area may have been 

 taken up and relaid to grass. 



It is thus seen that, where manure is not to be purchased 

 to advantage, the introduction of live-stock is the only means 

 of preserving the fertility of the soil. Hence, according as a 

 farm is devoted more to garden or field crops, is it found 

 profitable to support a less or a larger number of live-stock. 



The farthest limit which the New Englander can attain in 

 the direction of stock-raising is the dairy farm ; and though 

 up to this point there is absolutely no reason why New 

 England farming should not pay, and, as I have endeavored 

 to show, there is every evidence that it does yield a fair 

 return as gauged by other pursuits, — capital, skill and risk 



