212 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



Mark that spot of ground which is blessed with the drainings of 

 a barn-yard. It may be, in common parlance, the coldest spot 

 in the field. There the grass, as if the recent snow had given 

 it life, starts earliest in spring; there it is clothed with the deep- 

 est green ; and there the scythe of the mower finds the thickest 

 and heaviest grass. The aftermath nearly equals the first crop, 

 and the cattle, if suffered to do so, feed latest upon it in the autumn. 

 This is no matter of speculation — but it becomes an instructive 

 fact. In Flanders,* and when we speak of Flemish farmers, 

 we speak of men worthy of imitation, this species of manure is 

 relied on more than any other; and in China, where every town 

 has its sworn broker expressly for the purpose of examining night- 

 soil, it forms a fourth part of all the manure used. Yet, not- 

 withstanding its known value, a great majority of us suffer it to 

 run to waste, and in the largest public establishment! in the 

 county of Essex, until recently, if not now, this great element 

 of fertility has been suffered to escape into the sea. 



Another matter worth a moment's attention, is the Feeding 

 of Stock. A Southern gentleman, when about to commence 

 farming, was led to inquire, of an experienced neighbor, what 

 was the best mode of making corn. " Keep your work-horses 

 fat" was the reply. Experience proved to him who made the 

 inquiry, that this hint comprehended every thing connected with 

 good cultivation, although neither of them knew, at the time, that 

 Cato had said, two thousand years ago, that the secret of farming 

 consists in feeding well. 



Large sums of money have been spent, by individuals and so- 

 cieties, to improve our breeds of cattle. The best foreign varie- 

 ties have been made available to the man of the most limited 

 means. Far be it from me to say a word to discourage this laud- 

 able enterprise, which has already effected much good, and is 

 destined to do much more ; but when the merits of foreign vari- 

 eties have been blazoned abroad, and the inferiority of our native 

 breed carefully exaggerated, I have sometimes thought that the 

 sin of its owner was laid at the door of the brute beast. Feed 

 our cattle as they should be fed, and, except symmetry of form 



* The recent manure of a single cow is valued in Flanders at ten dollars per year, 

 f House of Correction, &c, at Ipswich. 



