THE FARMER AND THE COMMONWEALTH. 73 



scientific attainments whereby tlie burden of labor is lightened, 

 and in some cases made a pleasure instead of a drudgery, he 

 has made great advances. The mower of various patterns has 

 taken the place of the scythe ; the threshing machine the place 

 of the flail, and in nearly all respects his former condition, 

 intellectually, socially and financially, is not to be compared to 

 his present condition. Much has already been done by the 

 farmer, both for his o^n advantage and for the community, yet 

 much remains to be accomplished. The willing heart, the 

 steady hand, the active and intelligent brain, can make the 

 exhausted soil of New England as fertile as our Western 

 prairies, or the banks of Southern rivers. There is no reason 

 why the soil of New England, yea of Massachusetts, with its 

 towns and cities teeming with the busy hum of its industrious 

 artisans, should not support its own people. 



As we have seen, the farmer has made great improvement 

 within the last few years in almost all respects; yet in one 

 respect his course has been such as to be an injury to himself 

 and a disadvantage to the country, as the deteriorated pastures 

 now producing coarse grasses, brakes and bushes, amply testify. 

 The loss of the sheep in such pastures has been an injury to 

 the farmer, and a loss to the country. The farmer's attention 

 should be called to the culture and growth of the sheep as a 

 source of profit and advantage — profit in the annual increase of 

 his flocks, profit in the worth and use of the fleeces, as well as a 

 means of restoring and fertilizing the exhausted pastures which 

 have been greatly reduced in value since the growing of sheep 

 has been quite generally discontinued. 



The sheep is peculiarly adapted to the soil and climate of 

 New England, in which more than one-half of all the wool grown 

 in the United States for the last few years has been consumed 

 by the spindle and the loom, and there is no reason why the 

 farmers of New England should not produce annually more 

 wool than our whole country has done. Without regard to the 

 value of the wool, mutton, it is said by good authority, can be 

 produced at market and sold at profit, and at less price per 

 pound than any other meat raised on the farm. Taking into 

 consideration the rapid growth of wool, the duties laid upon it 

 by our government, the prospect of an increasing demand for 

 years to come, with a market near the door of every man for 

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