56 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



quently the experience of several summers is needed to enable 

 one to grow them at a profit. 



Tiie great diificulty in our farming operations is the scarcity 

 of good help. I put it on the basis of scarcity, not cost, of 

 labor, as is frequently done ; for I think the relative wages of 

 farm laborers to-day are no higher, when compared wnth the 

 prices of farm produce, than they were Avhen good men re- 

 ceived fifteen dollars per month for the season of six or eight 

 months, and extra help could be had in haying for half the 

 present price. A partial remedy for this is found in the use 

 of horse labor for many operations which were once done by 

 hand. Nor is the use of the horse- confined to the hay-field, 

 but every year it is found that some new work can be done as 

 well l)y horse as by man power. 



For instance, many men who raise large crops of potatoes 

 cover them with a light plough drawn b}^ a single horse, thus 

 doing the work rapidly and well. I find that even on heavy 

 land this method works well, if a little care is taken to go 

 over the ground and level the top of the farrow, where lumps 

 of earth or stones rest upon it. 



It will be seen that if a change of this kind can be made, 

 and this branch of work quickly disposed of, attention can be 

 given to other work and thus a start olitained on the season's 

 work, that will be appreciated as the weeks pass. Another 

 point on which opinion is changing is in regard to the amount 

 of land it is best to plant ; the old custom of many acres and 

 medium crops is giving way to the system of Europe, and 

 conforming to the practice of the gardeners near our cities, 

 which is to put on to one acre all the manure and labor the old 

 way gave to four, and getting a crop equal to the larger lot. 



The old story of the man who left his sons a treasure buried 

 in a field, which they were to find by digging, will apply to 

 Essex County as well as elsewhere. Some recent writer has 

 said that most men reckon only the superficial area of their 

 farms, as if they had a title to but a few inches in depth, for- 

 getting that often a soil may be made much more productive 

 by cultivating below the level at which it has usually been 

 worked. 



The author of "My Summer in a Garden" says he derived 

 great pleasure in thinking that though he had but a small piece 



