2 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



plantation stocked with a few indifferent cows, a pair or two of 

 ordinary oxen, two or three pigs, and a horse of all work, the 

 whole establishment barely supplying the annual consumption 

 by the family through hard work and much economy on the 

 part of all its members. 



This style of farming will not prosper in these days, when 

 steam and the iron horse have brought the prairies, with their 

 limitless extent of surface, and unequalled soil (and all for a 

 dollar and a quarter an acre,) within such easy reach of the 

 seaboard. 



We must adapt ourselves to the change of circumstances 

 thus introduced, and raise something' that ivill pay, on a scale 

 large enough to pay, or New England farming will come out 

 " at the little end of the horn." 



A farm in our county may be well adapted for dairy pur- 

 poses, or for sheep raising ; it may present facilities for growing 

 root crops, or for market gardening. It may include favorable 

 situations and soils for apples and pears, or for the cultivation 

 of hops, or grapes, and the other small fruits. Any of these 

 products, if the soil and aspect be suitable, and the access to a 

 market easy, can be made profitable ivilh the right management. 

 Grazing and dairy farms do pay nobly in New England. There 

 are towns which (without facilities ibr the sale of milk,) have 

 prospered and become rich by the manufacture of butter and 

 cheese. In certain districts, and under certain conditions, 

 sheep raiuing is profitable ; as the example of Mr. Edwin Ham- 

 mond, and other Vermont farmers, fairly demonstrates. 

 Market gardening, on the right kind of land, and in the vicinity 

 of a market, pays well. There are instances enough to show 

 that root crops may be remunerative in New England ; and, it 

 is worthy of remark, that the cost of transporting such bulky 

 products as these, saves us from the necessity of competing with 

 the West. It has been abundantly proved, also, by experi- 

 ments in France, that the cultivation of beets for the purpose of 

 making sugar, is not only feasible, but is also profitable to such 

 an extent, that the manufacturers of beet-root sugar ask no 

 protective duties to enable them to compete with the imported 

 sugar which is made from the cane. The time is coming when 

 this matter will be taken up in our Northern States ; and when 

 that time arrives, the cultivation of the sugar beet will form 



