1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



227 



dry food, it would seem as if to stuff him with 

 cob meal would only make bad worse. — The Farm- 

 er — Prof. Nash. 



TWELFTH LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTU- 

 RAL MEETING. 



Reported for the New England Farmer, 

 BY WILLIAM W. HILL. 



The ttvelfih and concluding meeting of the se- 

 ries was held on Tuesday evening. 



The meeting was called to order by Mr. Flint, 

 Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, who made 

 some interesting remarks appropriate to the clos- 

 ing meeting. He felt that the discussions 

 during the meetings just closing had been of an 

 nnusually practical and useful character, and 

 that they had personally benefited all who had 

 listened to them ; while the reports which had 

 been published had been read and copied through- 

 out the length and breadth of the land. The 

 subject for this evening's discussion, The Econo- 

 my of Agriculture, was one which embraced all 

 the practical details of farming, and not only 

 those, but the broader question of the duty of 

 the State to promote the interests of agriculture. 

 He concluded by announcing His Excellency 

 Governor Gardner as the Chairman for the even- 

 ing. 



The Governor, on taking the chair, expressed 

 his interest in the cause of agriculture, and his 

 especial approval of the objects for which these 

 meetings have been held. He did not doubt but 

 that they had been of great advantage to those 

 who had attended them. Unquestionably, experi- 

 mental knowledge is the most valuable, but these 

 meetings, like the libraries of books which we 

 prize so much, compress into a small compass the 

 knowledge and experience of a great many intel- 

 ligent minds, for the benefit and instruction of 

 all. The Governor remarked that it was his 

 good fortune to be born upon a farm, and he had 

 always cherished a love for agricultural pur- 

 suits. Indeed, that very morning, and early too, 

 he had left his home in the city to visit his farm, 

 and he hoped to have the pleasure in a few 

 months of eating some green peas raised from 

 seed which he had that very morning planted 

 with his own hand. He had eaten fruit of his 

 own production every month in the year. Re- 

 ferring to the economy of agriculture, ho re- 

 marked that a few days ago he had the pleasure 

 of visiting the State Farm at Wcstboro', and of 

 forming there the acquaintance of many mem- 

 bers of the Board of Agriculture. He had pre- 

 viously read a good deal in regard to the farm, 

 but had formed th(5 opinion that the experiment 

 of a State farm was rather visionary, and would 

 prove only a waste of money. What he saw, 

 and the explanations given him in regard to the 

 experiments carried on by the Board, however. 



modified his former belief, and he was now of 

 the opinion that the farm would be of great 

 benefit to the farmers of the commonwealth, — 

 much greater than the appropriations which 

 have or are likely to be made to it by the State. 

 Inhis opinion, the State should take a deep in- 

 terest in the obtaining and diffusion of agricultu- 

 ral knowledge among the people, and he could 

 conceive of no reason why Massachusetts sliould 

 not be able to sustain her entire population, even 

 though it should hereafter reach five millions, 

 with the productions of her own soil alone. 



Mr. Proctor, of Danvers, followed, at the call 

 of the Governor, and urged the justness of the 

 farmer's claims to aid from the State. He be- 

 lieved that the bounty extended by the State to 

 the county agricultural societies, had been a 

 great help to the agriculture of the State, and 

 that the State farm at Westboro' would be oi 

 very essential service to the people of the Com- 

 monwealth. It is only by means of such institu- 

 tions that we can learn the economy of agri- 

 culture. State farms should be established in 

 all the counties in the State, to be placed under 

 the control of the county societies, making an- 

 nual reports to the Secretary of the Agricultural 

 Bureau. It might be stipulated that each county 

 should raise a sum equal to that donated by the 

 State. He doubted whether the present system 

 of dispensing the bounty of the State by means 

 of premiums, was a judicious one. The same 

 sums expended on experimental farms, whence 

 valuable reports in regard to modes of cultiva- 

 tion, course of crops, application of manures, 

 the breeding and management of cattle, &c., 

 would be derived, would prove far more bene- 

 ficial than the ephemeral cattle shows now in 

 vogue, which make no lasting impression. 



Mr. Waters, of Beverly, spoke briefly of the 

 importance of experiments in agriculture, and 

 took occasion to allude to the great attention 

 paid to raising onions in Essex county. 



Mr. FiSKE, of Framingham, referred to the 

 remark often made to him by farmers, "Only 

 give me a plenty of manure, and I don't care 

 any thing about your Boston Culticator, your 

 New England Farmer, or your Ploughman. If I 

 could only get manure, I could get crops fast 

 enough." Many farmers who talk thus, could 

 double or treble their manures if they would only 

 make the most of their resources — bogs, sinks, 

 urine, ashes, &c. lie had raised forty to fifty 

 bushels of corn to the acre, with a manure made 

 up of meadow mud, sifted fine, ashes and urine 

 from horse and cow, putting a handful on each 

 hill after planting the corn, which was put into 

 the ground without manuring. The economy of 

 manure is the great point in farming. The wash 

 of one sink will raise half an acre of corn. 



