10 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



one," — is as applicable to our age and country as to Italy iu his 

 day. 



It is time this matter was pondered by our farmers. The 

 cheapness of land in this country has led to an ambitious mode 

 of extending a superficial tiltli over large surfaces, and congre- 

 gating worthless animals on lean pastures, without proper 

 regard to appearance or to profit. The consequence is a 

 slovenly style of conducting agricultural operations, on the 

 part of many, that is without a parallel in any civilized land. 

 Take a drive in almost any direction, in almost any neighbor- 

 hood, and behold the numerous orchards festooned with cater- 

 pillars' webs, scorched by canker-worms, and dying out from 

 the borers ; and see the fields covered witli the ox-eye daisy 

 (white weed,) the golden rod, and broad clumps of savin 

 (juniper,) while the road-sides are decorated with Canada 

 thistles, and rendered dangerous by wild parsnips, poisonous 

 sumachs and dog-wood, or disgusting witli stagnant pools, and 

 with vermin that seek refuge from the dying orchards in the 

 superior fertility of the higliway. 



Why do we behold such things ? They are the results of 

 attempting too much. The man who tries to work more land 

 than he can properly work, and to keep more animals than he 

 ought to keep, can afford no thought nor time nor expense, for 

 defending himself from the evils to which we have referred. 

 Clean farming and a due attention to his road-sides, are as 

 impracticable for him as thorough farming. 



Now tlie public has no right to prevent him from impover- 

 ishing himself by his mode of management ; but it has a right 

 to demand that he shall not make his farm a nuisance to his 

 neighbors — and a nuisance it is if he converts it into a seed-bed 

 and nursery for these plants and insect pests, so that his neigh- 

 bors are constantly supplied with fresh accessories, no matter 

 how much pains they take to keep their own plantations clear 

 and clean. 



I believe it is admitted that the destruction of these evil 

 plants and insects is possible in any given instance. It follows, 

 therefore, that under certain conditions they might all be 

 exterminated. I have therefore thought that it might be 

 expedient to enact laws offering bounties for the clearance of 

 each farm and the highways contiguous thereto, from these 



