274 . BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



Scattered over the hills and through the valleys of Massachu- 

 setts there are hundreds of families, each containing eight or 

 more persons, neither of which families save dressing enough in 

 the manner indicated, to fertilize a small garden patch, never 

 dreaming hy day or night of improvidence, waste or stench. 

 Thus, it should not be. Much of our soil is fast losing its 

 productiveness through the " skinning " process ; soil, too, 

 that would now be yielding abundant harvests but for the 

 shabby treatment bestowed upon it. 



Large tracts of land, and smaller, are already run so low that 

 we know of no conceivable way to renovate them, other than 

 give them over to the growth of forest trees, which is a slow but 

 rather sure process of renovation. 



Massachusetts farmers, New England farmers should awake 

 to this subject much more generally than they do, and see to it 

 that not only the night soil but everything which can be made 

 to nourish growing plants, is saved and in a manner that the 

 vitalizing air which we must all inhale is not unnecessarily 

 contaminated with hurtful effluvia. 



The half civilized Chinese are at least a century in advance 

 of us Yankees in some practices pertaining to agriculture. 

 Careful are they to collect and save every material which will 

 fertilize the land, even to the hair and shavings from the 

 barber's shops. Is it a wonder that the whole surface resembles 

 one vast garden ? Or that where the people are so thoughtful 

 about gathering all materials which could possibly taint the air 

 or enrich the soil in which it is buried with care the appellation 

 of " celestials " should be applied to them ? The difference 

 between the Yankees and celestials in this respect may be 

 accounted for, in the fact that the former have had a large 

 amount of virgin soil to resort to, while the latter are compara- 

 tively circumscribed as to territory, and are obliged to husband 

 all their resources in order to support the people of the empire. 

 With flour at eighteen dollars per barrel, eggs at fifty cents per 

 dozen, butter at fifty cents per pound, sirloin steaks at forty 

 cents, board at the house of a publican (common at that,) 

 three dollars and fifty cents per day, would seem to indicate 

 that the time has arrived when Yankees may as well husband 

 their resources, especially those which will pay in a sanitary 



