SECRETARY'S REPORT. 43 



ploughed land. Mr. Colt described, in a very interesting man- 

 ner, the growth of forest trees on certain lands in Berkshire. 

 Mr. Clement described the loose and porous soils upon which 

 orchards can be successfully grown in the county of Middlesex. 



Dr. Loring spoke of the great diversity of soil to be found in 

 Massachusetts. In no State is it so great, unless it be in Maine. 

 The hard granite soils of New Hampshire, tlie swelling hills of 

 Vermont, with their foundation of slate and limestone, the 

 warm, light lands of Connecticut and Rhode Island, can all be 

 found within the limits of Massachusetts. Her two great valleys 

 of the Merrimac and the Connecticut differ as much as if one 

 stream flowed through Georgia and the other through Kansas. 

 One half of her sea-coast, from Cape Cod to Boston, is sandy 

 and barren ; the other half, from Boston to the mouth of the 

 Merrimac, is remarkable for its fertility, as testified to by the 

 productive farms of Marblehead, and Ipswich, and Rockport, and 

 Newbury; as well as by the fine pastures lying on the granite 

 and greenstone ledges of the shores of Essex County. The 

 variety of soil in the interior is also great. Swamps composed 

 of muck, and low lands saturated by springs, abound. On the 

 boundaries of Essex and Middlesex the land is light, sandy, and 

 by no means retentive of manure. On the clayey hills of Wor- 

 cester and the slaty mountains of Berkshire, vegetation is 

 luxuriant, while the alluvial farms of the Connecticut Valley 

 can hardly be surpassed in fertility and wealth of resource. 



In such diversity of soil as this, it is impossible to adopt any 

 one system of agriculture. The management of sandy and light 

 lands, by short and frequent rotations, involving repeated appli- 

 cation of manures, will by no means apply to clay districts, 

 where manipulation of the soil is very difficult, and where 

 manure properly applied exerts its influence for a long time. 

 For peat or muck meadows there seems to be but one proper 

 mode of cultivation, and that is by removing them for the pur- 

 pose of enriching the light lands surrounding them. The 

 drainage of such low, peaty lands is seldom well repaid, as it is 

 impossible to prevent the efiects of the stagnant water beneath 

 the porous muck from chilling vegetation on the surface. 

 Moreover, decayed vegetable matter alone will not furnish 

 sufficient pabulum for the higher orders of nutritious plants. 



