8 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



adapted to produce, the matter of concentrating capital and labor 

 upon it, is worthy the careful study of each farmer. 



The common fault in New England is that of attempting to 

 cover too much surface ; to have too great a variety of crops, so 

 that the cultivation is not so neat, so thorough, nor so profitable 

 as it ought to be. I have referred to a style of planting which 

 gives to the fields the appearance of a checker-board, with very 

 small squares, and which, apparently, proceeds on the principle 

 that a large variety, though planted on a thin soil, insufficiently 

 fertilized and half cared for, will make iip for heavy manuring, 

 deep ploughing and clean, careful cultivation. 



In keeping with this mode of raising the crops, is that method 

 of selling them, which for the sake of getting the retail prices, 

 spends valuable time in taking small quantities to market and 

 peddling them out, frequently occupying a day, which would be 

 worth two dollars if employed in getting out the muck, working 

 it over and spreading it on the farm, in disposing of articles 

 that do not bring more than two dollars in cash. But while we 

 could not approve of such a style of doing things, neither would 

 we recommend ordinary farmers to attempt competition with, 

 or even imitation of, those of their neighbors who pursue 

 expensive methods — methods which look rather to the style 

 than to the profits of farm management. The latter, ordina- 

 rily, are gentlemen farmers, who have a prosperous manufactory 

 or mercantile establishment, or a quantity, of stock in banks 

 and railroads, on which they can rely for the means, so that in 

 the farm buildings, the laying out of their fields, the fences, the 

 fertilizers employed, the trees planted, the implements and 

 animals with which the farm is stocked, and the hands by which 

 it is worked, little regard is paid to the expense, but the 

 endeavor is to have everytlyng excellent of its kind. 



It is very pleasant to have such establishments sprinkled in 

 among the farms of a given district. They furnish striking 

 examples of what may be done in the field, the garden and the 

 stall ; and their infl[uence in improving the general style of 

 cultivation and management around tliem is confessedly very 

 great. Those who can afford to establish and maintain them 

 are or may be public benefactors ; but our farmers generally 

 must be content to learn what they can from both the successes 

 and the failures of such high farming, and to follow at a 



