32 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



shallow ploughing, application of fertilizers, iinderdraining, &c. 

 These things are of very little interest to the farmers of the 

 West, who cultivate their specialities, and whose soil will 

 produce a crop, provided the seed is sown. 



The hills of Worcester County produce better butter and 

 cheese than the hills of Ayr. The soil of Cambridge better 

 pears than France the home of pears. Hovey's Seedling, the 

 result of careful horticultural science, originated there to be 

 known beyond the Atlantic ; and the Hubbardston Nonesuch, 

 Roxbury Russet, and Rhode Island Greening are household 

 words. There is no better latitude than that from Boston 

 through to the lakes, for the growth of apples. Exporters say 

 that apples produced there are less liable to decay. 



Very much farther north, the seasons are too short, and much 

 farther south, they are too long. The trees grow to wood, form 

 too few fruit spurs, and store too little starch, gum, and sugar, 

 for the support of blossoms the ensuing year. Thoreau says 

 in the '^ Atlantic Monthly": "The trees of New England 

 embrace all the most valuable kinds on the continent. I never 

 have a botanical specimen sent to me, but I am sure to find 

 something like it in my rambles ; and I even expect to find the 

 Victoria regia, on Concord River." 



But what must be done to arrest the decay which in many 

 places is going on ; which, while the land around our cities is 

 becoming a garden, is blighting some country neighborhoods. 

 What must be done to keep the sons of New England on. their 

 native soil ; who now yield to the allurements of the fertile 

 West ; pour into cities, or adopt any other pursuit rather than 

 cultivate their native fields ? 



In farming there has been too great a strain upon the mus- 

 cles, and too little upon the brain ; too much physical, and too 

 little intellectual labor. The muscles have become stiffened, 

 while the brain has suffered by inactivity. Says Channing: 

 " Manual labor is a great good, but in so saying I must be 

 understood to speak of labor in its just proportions. In excess 

 it docs great harm. It is not as good when made the sole work 

 of life. It must be joined to high means of improvement, or it 

 degrades instead of exalting. 



" Man has a various nature which requires a variety of occu- 

 pations and discipline for its growth. Study, meditation. 



