THE INTERESTS OF AGRICULTURE. 21 



wish that they were compelled to sleep upon the thistles they 

 raise, until by united effort the vile weeds were banished to 

 their native Canada to comfort the long-cared gentry gon6 

 thither to escape the draft ! 



Neither will I talk about that man of Chelmsford — a disciple 

 of Nimrod — who to save a few extra cherries, shot all the robins 

 and woodpeckers about his premises, tearing the twigs off his 

 trees with the shot more than two years' growth will repair, and 

 breaking the law at the same time. In this case, the subsequent 

 bugs and cut-worms convinced the offender of his ungrateful 

 folly, and no gratuity that we can pay would induce him again 

 to slay his feathered benefactors. 



Perhaps the trustees of our society may expect a discourse 

 upon their policy of offering premiums for blooded bulls, and 

 also for those doubtful quadrupeds called native bulls, thus 

 rewarding one man for introducing good blood among our stock, 

 and rewarding another man for adulterating the same blood 

 when it has been introduced ! Although I think the society 

 thus commits a greater bull than any in its pens, I will not stop 

 to express an opinion. 



No — caterpillar-raisers, thistle-distributors, bird-murderers, 

 and blood-debasers — though right in thinking you ought to be 

 talked about, I must pass you by. That thoughtfulness of your 

 committee, of which I spoke, prevents, and it is this : when they 

 extended their late but imperative invitation, they said that 

 twenty minutes would be long enough to speak, and that I must 

 not on any account take over half an hour ! So having con- 

 sumed a fair portion of my allowance in preliminaries — in 

 skirmishing around the outposts — I will devote the remainder 

 of it to the idea I have, that the great want of agriculture 

 among us is, a large increase of farms and a much thicker 

 farming population. 



I know the idea is that our section of country is about full, 

 and that young persons wishing a farm should go to the West. 

 Yet of the 42,000,000 acres in New England only 19,000,000 

 are occupied, and only two-thirds of even this space is what is 

 called improved — that is used for pasturage, tillage, and grass, 

 or for building purposes. So, less than one-third of New England 

 is improved, and not one-half is occupied for any purpose. 



