SECRETARY'S REPORT. 41 



present a summary of the soils, crops, animals, geological form- 

 ation, resources and general condition of these districts of the 

 kingdom. In one or two instances, a similar attempt has been 

 made in this country. The amount of information thus col- 

 lected has always been great and various ; and it has presented 

 that sort of knowledge to the farmer, which would enable him 

 to make a comparison with the agriculture of his own section, 

 and receive valuable suggestions from it. So of the reports of 

 farms. The details of the cultivation of a good crop of corn 

 are always interesting and instructive. The mode of restoring 

 pasture lands, which has met with a good result, is of value to 

 every Massachusetts farmer. Tiie rules by which any breed of 

 cattle or sheep has been developed and improved, are always 

 attractive and useful. And there is no single operation in agri- 

 culture, whether of drainage, or tillage, or manuring, which 

 does not require the most careful investigation, and a record of 

 which will not secure the attention of every enterprising hus- 

 bandman. But no one of these involves the whole business of 

 farming ; and each experiment or operation may have been 

 carried on in the midst of very poor and very unprofitable 

 general management. The recital, therefore, of a successful 

 farming operation as a whole, is what we most need. He who 

 has learned the best method of bringing a common New 

 England farm into a profitable condition, and of managing it 

 well in all its details, and who has recorded it carefully and 

 accurately, has done a service which cannot be too highly esti- 

 mated. He lays down the rules by which the most healthful 

 and generally profitable business is conducted ; by which the 

 most cheerful homes find a substantial foundation ; by which 

 true prosperity is most evenly diffused. He presents a picture 

 which all men admire, and which all would be happy to secure 

 for themselves. 



The advantages which we enjoy for such record as this, in 

 this day, are very great. The details of farming, when by 

 hand labor alone the fields were tilled, and when strength and 

 industry were the sole requisites for good agriculture, were 

 comparatively simple. But the modern attempts to elevate the 

 standard of agricultural enterprise and to stimulate agricul- 

 tural intellect, have rendered the business one of more 

 interest, and more careful and profound study. The soil, under 



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