86 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



about the quality and location. There is just as much differ- 

 ence between a good farm and a poor one, as there is between 

 a good ship or a good cow and a poor one. It is not every acre 

 of land in every locality which will pay for good husbandry. 

 A farm should be chosen, then, with reference to locality, 

 whether near to or remote from a market ; with reference to 

 the soil, whether light or heavy, warm or cold, sloping north or 

 south, wet or dry; with reference to the kind of farming to 

 which it is adapted ; with reference to the balance it possesses 

 of land for tillage and land for pasture, of upland and meadow, 

 of woodland and cleared land. 



When purchased, it should be devoted to that kind of farm- 

 ing to which it is best adapted. It would be idle to undertake 

 to raise corn on heavy clay soils, or a long continued succession 

 of hay crops upon sands. No sane man would try to raise beef 

 within the sound of Boston bells — and no man would establish 

 a market-garden on the hills of Berkshire. It would be idle to 

 pasture Shorthorn cattle on Cape Cod, and a waste of pasturage 

 to keep West Highlanders in the valley of the Connecticut. We 

 must decide with judgment what our farm is intended for ; and 

 never, until the promise of seedtime and harvest is broken, will 

 that farm fail to respond to well-directed care and industry. 



On every farm the buildings should be well located — some- 

 where about the centre of all the farming operations. A hill- 

 side, with a southerly aspect, will furnish an excellent location 

 for the barn, with its cellar opening to the south, and its yard 

 warm and well-protected for cattle. The house should be con- 

 veniently situated near the barn ; and if it is adorned internally 

 •with taste and economy, and surrounded externally with trees 

 and shrubbery judiciously planted, depend upon it, your repu- 

 tation as a farmer and a Christian will not suffer, neither will 

 your purse, should you at any time desire to sell your place. 

 But, at any rate, select a cheerful spot, near the centre of your 

 tillage lands. No farmer can afford to haul his manure a mile, 

 when he can just as well use it within a quarter part of that 

 distance. Begin to cultivate directly about your buildings. If 

 you liave a lot that is pretty good, yielding a fair crop of hay or 

 corn close at hand, and one not quite so good more remote, it is 

 poor economy to try to make the remote land as good as that 

 close ' hy you — it is good economy to bring the latter to the 



