ESSEX SOCIETY. 46 



dred ox cart loads of this manure, made during the past season, 

 and shall make quite as much more during the winter and 

 spring. 



Chekry Hill Farm, Beverly, Nov. 28, 1851. 



Improving Pasture Lands. 



Pasture land has hitherto been more neglected than other 

 lands, and its value has not generally been appreciated. I 

 think that good pasture land will produce as much net income, 

 reckoning it at the price at which it is usually valued, as other 

 lands. 



It appears from statistics officially taken in 1850, by the au- 

 thority of the State, that there are in the county of Essex 

 ninety-eight thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven acres of 

 pasture land, and that it will keep, with the fall feed on the 

 farms, nineteen thousand three hundred and six cows, taking a 

 fraction over five acres to keep a cow, on an average. Now as 

 there are some pastures where from one to two acres will keep 

 a cow, consequently we may suppose there are others that will 

 take seven or eight acres. The difference in the amount of 

 feed produced on good pasture land and poor, is not all. The 

 quality of the feed is much better on good pasture land than 

 on poor, for as the pasture improves, and the English grasses 

 increase, the wild grasses decrease. And this is not all, for 

 where it takes seven or eight acres to keep a cow, the feed is 

 so thin that an animal is necessarily feeding nearly all day to 

 supply the wants of nature, while those kept in good pastures 

 can quickly supply their wants, and then retire to the shadow 

 of the tree to protect them from the scorching sun, or if they 

 choose, refresh themselves on the adjoining knoll. 



Now for the comparative profits of the animals. If cows, 

 there will be a great difference in the quantity and quality of 

 the milk. And in autumn, the one kept in the good pasture 

 will be in much better condition than the other. If the animal 

 is designed for beef, one will be ready at almost any time, 

 when its high price or other circumstances require its sale, 



