THE INTERESTS OF AGRICULTURE. 23 



bestowed upon man, soil of greater capability of being made 

 lastingly fertile , than the sandy light soil of Neiv England!^' 



My friend, Dr. Lariiig, of Salem, who happily combines theo- 

 retical, practical, and remunerative farming, found himself, 

 three years ago, short of manure. He accordingly got o\it one 

 hundred and seventy cords of muck from a swamp, and mixing 

 one hundred casks of lime, put it in little heaps to freeze 

 through the winter. In the spring, after thorough mixing, it 

 had become excellent manure, costing him when spread, not 

 fifty cents a cord, besides the original getting out. With this 

 dressing and some small additions, he raised seventy-live bushels 

 of corn to the acre, and left his land in good heart for future 

 operations. In Maine, many cultivators have adopted Dr. 

 Dana's method of making manure, so that farms, where few 

 animals are kept, continually increase in richness, at a small 

 expense. 



But this operation is oiily half the work needed here. For 

 every cord brought from the low ground, one or two should be 

 carried back, giving muck composts to the uplands and sandy 

 composts to the lowlands. Thus, year by year, over even our 

 most obscure hills and valleys, the area of cultivation may 

 expand. Nature yielding more and more of her bounty to a 

 constantly improving skill and an increasing population. 



But we have another store of fertility neglected, that is 

 immense. The 220,000 acres of improved land in Middlesex 

 County are divided into 4,300 farms. Most of these are three- 

 storied. The five inches nearest the surface form the first 

 story ; the five inches next below are the second ; the five or 

 ten inches next under that make the third. Now statistics 

 show, and good farmers assure me that they are correct, that 

 in this county, and in the whole State, the average depth of 

 ploughing is only five inches. Thus, while we improve only 

 two-thirds the surface of Old Middlesex, we improve only one- 

 third the depth. 



To make room for more farms, the easiest and best-paying 

 way is to shorten the length and breadth of the present farm, 

 and increase its thickness. Agriculture is an exception to the 

 general rule, and thrives the more as you run it into the 

 ground ! Good farmers admit this doctrine so generally that 



