HINDRANCES TO SUCCESSFUL FARMING. 81 



fusing them over a broad extent of territory, where they 

 make but sbght impression. The average of hay through- 

 out the State is but little over a ton to the acre, and thou- 

 sands of acres are mowed which do not yield half a ton to 

 the acre ; four entire counties show less than a ton to the 

 acre ; and of all the towns in this Commonwealth, one hun- 

 dred and sixty-four reported in 1875 less than a ton to the 

 acre; GG8,183 acres produced only 671,130 tons of hay at 

 both cuttings.* 



Now, if every farmer had mowed only one-third as much 

 land as he did, and had that third in as good condition as 

 Mr. Lilly's, he would have had just double the hay he did 

 cut, saving, in the labor of going over so much territory in 

 gathering and storing his hay, enough to pay largely toward 

 the expense of well-manuring his ground. If each farmer 

 in the State could have added one-half ton to each acre, it 

 would, at the going price of 1875, have amounted to over 

 five millions of dollars. The average farmer cuts 121^ pounds 

 to the square rod ; Mr. Lilly cuts seventy-five pounds. Now 

 make a very great allowance for the difference in the cost of 

 preparation for his crop and that of what an ordinary farmer 

 might do, and see how much is lost by ruinously attempting 

 to cultivate too much land without the means to support it. 



Take the corn crop as another illustration of the same 

 mistake in half cultivating too much land. 



The average of the corn crop throughout the State was 

 only 35 1 bushels, to wit : — 



Barnstable 27 Jq to the acre. 



Berkshire 34^*0 " " " 



Essex 41^0 " " 



Hampden 27^5^ " " " 



Middlesex 42j5g- " " 



Norfolk S8^% " " " 



Suffolk 30 " " " 



Bristol 36^85 

 Dukes 27^*0 

 Franklin 35^% 

 Hampshire 31^^ 

 Nantucket 36 

 Plymouth 33^6_ 

 Worcester 43^*j5^ 



to the acre. 



Now, within ten years past, from every one of those 

 counties have been published reports by the Secretary of our 

 Board, giving individual cases where from seventy-seven to 

 one hundred bushels of corn had been raised with thorough 



* I am obliged to refer to our State Census of nine years ago, as the Federal 

 Census of 1880 does not afford the means of comparison. 



