80 



cultivation. This he had done, not by a lavish expenditure of 

 money in commercial fertilizers, but by an economical hus- 

 banding all the manurial resources at his command from 

 the farm and the city, so v\^isely applied as to yield the best 

 results. He understood the value of manure as a top-dress- 

 ing, and his own land told the story of the use of that knowl- 

 edae. I think I have nowhere seen field after field of thicker 

 clover and herds grass than it was my privilege to see on Mr. 

 Newhall's farm a few years since early in June. It was a 

 w^onder to me, a new revelation, and I asked how it had been 

 done. He then and there narrated in a plain and modest way 

 the methods of his success. It was the very best field lecture 

 I ever listened to. 



But I remembered that our deceased friend was a son of 

 one of the very best of our Essex County farmers, Asa Tar- 

 bell Xewhall — himself also gone to his rest ; and I ceased to 

 marvel. I will mention but one thing more which contribut- 

 ed, as it seems to me, to the success of that son in his farm- 

 ing. He attended personally to his business. He knew every 

 cow in his herd of sixty, and whether she was giving a profit 

 on the keeping. If not, that cow was turned to beef or 

 otherwise disposed of. He went daily to market with the 

 milk and other products of his farm. I will venture to say 

 that he made but few, if any, bad debts. I am sure he lost 

 nothing by market men, for he employed none. He was 

 strong where many a farmer is weak. He knew when, and 

 where and how to sell. Hence he was as he desired to be, a 

 successful farmer. But I will not enlarge on this point, and 

 will only add that his interest in our Society was unabated to 

 the last, marked as it was by the same energy, and sagacity, 

 that characterized his farming. Pie had faith in the Society 

 as keeping alive an interest in the cultivation of the soil, es- 

 pecially the cultivation of the soil of Essex County, which in 

 his opinion was the safest and best investment that could pos- 

 sibly be made. 



