402 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



can be made more productive and profitable, we shall continue 

 to be dependent on other portions of our country for a large 

 share of the necessaries of life, and her sons will look to other 

 and more fertile lands for a residence. 



Agriculture should receive our special attention, for al- 

 though we may, for the present, purchase with our manufac- 

 tures the grain and beef and other products we consume, yet 

 the time will come when the manufacturer and mechanic will 

 place himself down by the side of the producer, thus saving 

 the expanse of transportation to both, and when Massachusetts 

 will be obliged to rely, more than she now does, on the pro- 

 ducts of her soil for the support of her population. 



Shall we learn wisdom by this experience ? Or shall we 

 -continue the exhausting process of perpetual cropping, without 

 the application of science to restore the productive energies of 

 the soil ? So devastating has been this practice, that oiie thou- 

 sand millions of dollars, it is estimated, would not more than 

 .restore to their primitive richness and strength, the arable lands 

 of the United States, which already have been partially ex- 

 hausted of th^ir fertility ; and that, should this prodigal system 

 continue to the close of the present century, the natural fertility 

 of all the remaining American territory, will, long before that 

 period, have been abstracted. 



Is it not, then, a question of vital importance to the Common- 

 wealth v/hether the great interest of agriculture shall remain 

 stationary, or whether it shall move on in the line of improve- 

 ment with the other departments of human industry? It is un- 

 doubtedly wise policy to encourage and foster any species of 

 industry which is adapted to the wants and conditions of a 

 community; but just in proportion to the prosperity of the agri- 

 cultural interest, will ultimately be the ratio of success in all 

 the other great industrial pursuits. 



Who doubts that our lands are capable of yielding more than 

 double their present productions, with little or no increase of 

 expense ? How many thousands of acres there are in the Com- 

 monwealth, also, which produce no income whatever, and 

 which, in reality, are the richest portions of our soil, and by 

 the application of science may be made to produce abundantly ? 



