100 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Sept. 



to rights. No matter how many servants you have, 

 it is a miserable habit, and if its source is not in 

 the intellectual and moral character, it will inevita- 

 bly terminate there. If you have used the dipper, 

 towel, tumbler, &c., put them back in their places, 

 raid you will know where to find them when you 

 vvfant them again. Or if you set an example of 

 carelessness, do not blame your servants for follow- 

 ing it. Children should be taught to put things 

 I ack in their places as soon as they are old enough 

 to use them; and if each member of the family 

 were to oljserve this sim.ple rule, the house would 

 never get much out of order, and a large amount 

 of vexation and useless labor would be avoided. 



AGEICULTUEE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



To THE Editor of the Boston Journal : — In 

 your pai)er of the 2d, you give a somewhat elabor- 

 ate report of the proceedings of the Board of Agri- 

 culture at Westboro', and comment at some length 

 upon the benefit to agriculture of the experiments 

 and inquiries instituted upon that noble farm. 



Nothing is more gratifying to the lover of his 

 country's welfare tlian thus to see a leadingjournal 

 giving its time, and room in its columns, to the fur- 

 therance of agriculture among us, an art which does 

 not usually rise above the notice of the few who 

 happen to b" interested, in other parts of the 

 world. 



Every improvement in agriculture that tends to 

 increase the amount of gross returns from the 

 earth's culture, per annum, or that reduces the cost 

 of cultivation or harvest, is of more real importance 

 to the woild than any other invention, discovery or 

 improvement to the same amount that is ever 

 made. 



Whilst many of our enthusiastic countrymen 

 luive been for years devoting their time and money 

 to this cause, others have held back and sneered at 

 all prospect of valuable returns in such a cause. — 

 The strongest opposition has always been met 

 among those who ought to be the warmest support- 

 ers, the practical farmers ; they have always expe- 

 rienced just so much labor and trouble, and get 

 a certain amount in return, and they, particularly, 

 are very apt to despise the so-called model farms, 

 with their boards of oificers, discoveries and im 

 provements. 



Our Massachusetts State Farm at Westboro' has 

 been thus sneered at repeatedly, and many even of 

 those who are among the progressives, and believe 

 that something new may be discovered, and im- 

 provements made, have particularly objected to this 

 place. 



They have found fault with the laxity with which 

 experiments have been conducted, at the want of 

 accuracy and value in the returns and accounts of 

 experiments, and at the general feilure of the 

 scheme. 



Now, first, the scheme is by no means a failure, 

 for very valuable experiments have been tried there 

 and numerous discoveries made ; and it may be 

 said that those persons who point at the reports of 

 the Board of Agriculture by the Secretary, G. L. 

 Flint, E^q., as meagre and inaccurate, are not just 

 either to the re])orts or the maker of them. The 

 reports are always compilations of the reports of 

 other societies, to whom all who object to inaccu- 

 rate reports should look, and of tvhich complain. 



not of that general compendium which brings them 

 all together before the public. And, again, who- 

 ever complains that Mr. Flint's accounts of tran- 

 sactions, experiments, &-c. at Westboro', are value- 

 less from a too superficial account of the commence- 

 ment, course and residt of experiments, should re- 

 member that the whole matter there is under the 

 charge of some dozen committees, who are respon- 

 sible for the success of the farm, and failure of the 

 undertakings there — not Mr. Flint, who is merely 

 the Secretary and vehicle for bringing their experi- 

 ments before the world. 



Indeed, it may be said few men could be placed 

 in a more onerous position, to be thus, to many 

 people the proposer and manager of improvements 

 and experiments for whose failure he is blamed, 

 when the whole merit or blame appertains to oth- 

 ers, and he could not if he would control the matter. 



It is the very fact of the large amount of machi- 

 nery involved and the expense necessary at such a 

 place that discourages general farmers from under- 

 taking improved agriculture ; they say it is all very 

 well for pul)]ic instiUitions and rich men to dabble 

 in experiments ; they can afford to fail — we can't. 

 What will they say when they see that the men 

 I who have the best means of judging of the success 

 jor failm-e of such experiments are wilhng to risk 

 their own capital and time in similar private ven- 

 tures. 



You remember, perhaps, that Dr. W. T. G. 

 Morton, oi" Ether and Suffolk Pig celebrity, has a 

 fine farm in West Needham. Last year his farm 

 took the premium as a model farm from the Nor- 

 folk Agricultural Society ; and his dairy of six 

 cows took the State premium of $150 for the best 

 dairy in Massachusetts. Now this farm, fully 

 stocked with blood stock, Suffolk pigs, and Alder- 

 ney cows, Mr. C. L. Flint, in company with a friend, 

 Capt. Davis, hired last fall just before harvest, and 

 bought the crops and stock for some $5000, and 

 are now carrying it on. Here Mr. F. has the op- 

 portunity to display his agricultural skill, and to 

 try experiments that the State farm could never 

 give : for here he has no controlling power to in- 

 terfere with the success or management of his ex- 

 periments, or to assume the credit where any re- 

 sults, or be responsible for any failures. 



Although those who believe inl)ook-f;irming ver- 

 sus the so-called practical, would have liked that a 

 man in Mr. Flint's position, with all the science, 

 knowledge and experience, his long continuance in 

 the board of agriculture, and his connection with, 

 and supervision over the Westboro' farm, ought to 

 have given him, should take some poor, worn-out 

 farm, there to show more triumphantly the power 

 of science and books; still we cannot but be delight- 

 ed that such an evidence as this should be given of 

 the faith men really have in their own theories. 



With this fine, rich well cultivated form, and with 

 the superior stock upon, it nothing but the most vi- 

 olent natural accidents can prevent Mr. Flint's 

 trying and proving all the theories and experiments 

 his reading may suggest to him, and there can he 

 no doubt he will furnish iis this ajttumn with state- 

 ments relative to the commencement, continuance and 

 conclusion of experiments that will demonstrate to 

 the world, conclusively, that book farming is all 

 that it pretends to be, and is capable of regenerat- 

 ing the worn-out lands of New England. 



Yours respectfully, Rusxicus. 



