392 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



ly in the aid which it is capable of rendering society in all the 

 useful operations performed by civilized man. Thus, a scientific 

 farmer who wishes to convert a barrel of recently worked cider 

 into good vinegar, can do so in forty-eight hours. And I will 

 add, that no branch of rural labor pays better than to grow ap- 

 ples and transform their juice into good cider vinegar. Judging 

 from the smallness of the apples to be seen in this region, only 

 a few appreciate the importance of applying lime and ashes over 

 all the roots of trees that bear this fruit. The contrast between 

 the magnificent apples exhibited in your public hall, and those 

 in most oichards, clearly indicates that improvement is not less 

 practicable than desirable. I am confident that as a market 

 crop, with skill and due attention, more money can be made 

 from apples than almost any other product of the soil. 



If I were asked to state in what way the agriculture of Mas- 

 sachusetts can be most easily advanced, I should not hesitate to 

 say that it can be done by the permanent improvement of all 

 your farming lands. No practical farmer will deny that fertile 

 soils yield six dollars per acre more for the labor bestowed on 

 them, than poor soils. The difference then, in their produc- 

 tive value, is ,^100 per acre, at six per cent, interest. Take 

 another view of this interesting subject. There are performed 

 at least thirty millions of days' work in agriculture every year 

 in this State. Is it too much to say that the return for all this 

 labor may be increased to the extent of 20 cents a day for each 

 operative ? If not, then your income may be augmented from 

 the same land, capital and industry, six millions of dollars. 

 You may ask, how this result is to be attained ? Let us see. 

 You are now troubled with the potato malady, and fail to har- 

 vest so large crops as were grown twenty-five and thirty years 

 ago. Why is this ? If I were to take one hundred grains of 

 this tuber which I have in my hand, and burn the potato to 

 ashes, I should have about one grain. Of this, fifty per cent, 

 would be pure potash. There are nearly a million of people in 

 this Commonwealth who eat potatoes every day in the year, 

 when good ones are to be had. Now, assuming that potash is 

 indispensable to organize carbon and the elements of water 

 which form starch, as it unquestionably is, I desire to know 



