FARMING IN NEW ENGLAND. 79 



FARMING IK NEW ENGLAND. 



PLYMOUTH. 



From the Supervisors' Report. 



If the record of successful and unsuccessful attempts to 

 raise premium crops does not furnish conclusive evidence of 

 the truth of the proposition, that farming has not yet become 

 one of the exact sciences, an abundance of corroborative 

 testimony* may be found in the manifold replies, given by 

 formers and others, to that most important of all the ques- 

 tions relating to their common interest, "What can the Ply- 

 mouth County farmer most profitably raise?" One will con- 

 fidently answer, grass ; another, potatoes ; another, fruits ; 

 while still another, not wholly regardless of the traditions and 

 experience of the past, may timidly suggest, Indian corn ; and 

 so on through the entire list of farm products. Each profess- 

 edly favors some special crop, for specialties are just now in 

 fashion ; but each one's specialty is apt to be temporary in its 

 nature, and, even for the time being, theoretical rather than 

 practical, the essential idea of special farming requiring the 

 devotion of one's whole energies to the production of some 

 single crop to the exclusion of all others. 



One will tell us of a hundred bushels of corn purchased 

 from the proceeds of a single square rood of potatoes. He 

 may fail to report the number of days' labor and the number 

 of miles of travel expended in raising and retailing the crop : 

 but he will scarcely fiiil to have growing somewhere upon his 

 premises some scattered patches of — well, somethiug besides 

 potatoes, — as a dernier resort in case his favorite crop should 

 prove unreliable. Another informs us of a thousand dollars' 

 worth of Indian corn, cultivated and harvested for thirty-three 

 dollars, or three and one-third per cent of its value. We 



