THE FARMER AND THE COMMONWEALTH. 69 



interests, he slowly trod in the beaten, shallow track of the 

 wooden plough, made by his fathers before him. 



The idea of draining, reclaiming and bringing into produc- 

 tive usefulness the idle and dismal marshes, 



"Where quferulous frogs in muddy pools do croak," 



had never entered his head. The uplands which had been 

 cleared of their forest trees for any considerable length of time, 

 were to a great extent exliausted by taking from them their 

 annual crops without returning therefor that i-easonable 

 compensation which tlie unalterable law of all soils requires. 

 Although the farmer saw his lands reduced and turning into 

 wastes, yet he knew not the value of manures ; the idea of 

 composts and special manures was then unheard of; wood 

 ashes were of no use except in making soap. He knew not 

 how to retain the vigor of the soil, much less did he know how to 

 restore that which had been lost by reason of his own ignorance. 



In the treatment of his live stock he had no intelligent sys- 

 tem, and knew little or nothing of that thrifty economy which 

 is now seen in the sleek and growing stock of our intelligent 

 modern farmer. Horses and cattle during the summer months 

 were permitted to take care of themselves, excepting when 

 their immediate services were required by their owners. In 

 the winter months they were so poorly fed and cared for, that 

 the greater portion of the summer months, with an unlimited 

 license to appropriate to their own use such of the spontaneous 

 productions of the earth as were within their reach, was 

 required to regain the lost strength and flesh caused by the ill- 

 treatment of the past winter. 



In regard to the cultivation of the annual vegetable products 

 of the soil, the farmer was sadly deficient. The garden was a 

 vegetable patch composed mostly of potatoes and weeds, with- 

 out peaches, pears, cherries, quinces, grapes or currants. 

 Tomatoes were then unheard of. Apples were then raised, but 

 by far the greater part of them were ground into pomace 

 and then pressed into cider — an orchard of select apple trees 

 was seldom seen. We have now the Baldwin, the Porter, the 

 Jewett's Fine Red, and Hubbardston Nonsuch, (the original 

 seedling tree of which is now standing in its native town of 



