416 SELECTIOMS FROM ADDRESSES. 



slovenly culture, it is for the owner's interest to cultivate the 

 single acre, for thereby he saves at least half his labor. An 

 immense amount of physical energy is exrhausted in mowing 

 and ploughing on land encumbered with stumps and bushes 

 and rocks. Many of this audience must have seen fields and 

 meadows, in which, by a moderate computation, one third of 

 the surface was covered with stones and stumps, many of them, 

 perhaps, immovable without great labor and expense, but most 

 of which might be removed. Now, why should a farmer be 

 at the trouble of driving a plough through two acres of rocks 

 for the sake of ploughing up one acre of soil? If he would 

 carry off the stones from one acre he would get all the product 

 he now obtains from two acres, and at a less expenditure of 

 time and labor. It is true, that this removing of rocks and 

 stumps and bushes is not accomplished without hard work ; 

 but when the land is once cleared of the incumbrances, the 

 most fatiguing part of the work is over ; the rest is all pastime 

 and relaxation ; but in ploughing and sowing, year after year, 

 where the plough is constantly impeded in its movement, and 

 turned out of its proper straight-forward course, there is an an- 

 nual wear and tear of the human constitution, beside the un- 

 necessary wear and destruction of farming implements, which 

 is an expense of no inconsiderable amount. It is not uncom- 

 mon to see men mowing and raking in meadows where a 

 straight line of thirty feet could hardly be drawn, in any direc- 

 tion, without being brouglit up by a rock, a stump, a clump of 

 bushes, or perhaps a pile of stones as large as an ordinary hay- 

 cock. There are hundreds of acres of mowing land of this 

 description in New England, which, I venture to say, produce 

 less hay to an acre than might be obtained from one fourth of 

 an acre well cleared, manured, and seeded with herdsgrass and 

 clover. If I might be allowed to assume the office of monitor, 

 I would address those who manage their farms in this maimer, 

 in the language of one of New England's favorite poets : — 



'Tis folly, in the extreme, to till 

 Extensive fields, and till them ill. 

 The farmer, pleased, may boast aloud 

 His bushels sown, his acres ploughed, 



