30 MASSACHUSETTS nORTICULTURAL SOCIETV. 



busbanded, yet it is very beautiful! iu open lands. . . No place 

 barren but on the tops of the hills ; the grasse and weedes grow 

 up to a man's face ; in the lowlands and by fresh rivers abundance 

 of grasse and large nieddowes without any tree or shruljhe to 

 hinder the silh. I never saw, except in Hungaria, unto which I 

 always parallel this countrie, in all our most i-espects ; for every- 

 thing that is heare, eyther sowne or planted, prospereth far better 

 then in old England. " 



It is to be regretted that no accurate statements are made of the 

 yield per acre of the various products of the soil. But, judging 

 from these and many similar general statements which the limit 

 of time forbids me to cite, we have every reason to believe they 

 were far beyond the average crops of the present day under like 

 culture. It is true we read of their occasional failure by reason 

 of droughts ; and it is certain that droughts occurred then as well 

 as now. But in judging of their frequency and intensity we are to 

 bear iu mind that the plowing of early days was the merest scratch- 

 ing of the surface, that little or no retentive manure was used, and 

 that at the present day and under such conditions our crops 

 would prove uniform failures. It is safe to say that, with the ad- 

 vantage of a virgin soil and with the conservation and more uni- 

 form distribution of moisture afforded b}- the forests, our ancestors 

 had good reason for making glowing comparisons with the fertile 

 soils of Europe. 



Turn now to the aspect of our State at the present day, and we 

 are compelled to admit a mighty cliange. AVe except, with pleas- 

 ure, the alluvial spots around our cities, which receive special en- 

 richment and high culture. We point to these with pride, a8 3'ield- 

 ing products largely exceeding those of the past. But the fertility 

 of these gardens serves to make the barrenness of the surrounding 

 hills and plains only the more conspicuous. 



These outlying fields have been laid bare for a century or more, 

 and subjected to the inllueuces of our clear, hot sun, of sweeping 

 winds, and of wa.-,liing rains. To a large degree the organic deposit 

 of ages has been exhausted by continued cropping ; or dried and 

 blown, ov washed, away. So exhausted have many sections be- 

 come that they are abandoned for tillage and are now neglected 

 pastures, or are left to a straggling and miscellaneous forest growth. 

 It is a well known fact that there are, and have been for years, 

 numerous farms for sale in all parts of the State at a price scarcely 



