MASS, BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 511 



have descended to us iiuchanged in their original forms, and 

 will continue to embarrass for generations to come. 



These ill-shaped subdivisions are owing, in some degree, to 

 the natural diversity in the surface of the ground, and differ- 

 ences in the quality of the soil. Waste lands, (so called) were 

 left out in common ; the poorer soils were kept for pastures, 

 while the richer portions, in the shapi and extent in which they 

 happened to exist, were inclosed for cultivation. Much im- 

 provement in this respect, may be made in the interior divis- 

 ions of our farms, but their outlines will probably forever 

 remain more or less irregular. Compare our farms with those 

 at the west. How different is our plan of a farm from that 

 perfect and unif6rm system, under which the public lands are 

 surveyed and divided into squares and parallelograms. These 

 divisions, we understand, are generally preserved among the 

 farmers at the west. 



The increased unnecessary cost of fencing in this State, on 

 this account, is an item in the aggregate of vast amount, and is 

 well worthy of our consideration. By having our farms prop- 

 erly and skilfully laid out, we could save seventy-five rods in 

 every hundred of fencing. Any one will be convinced of this, 

 who will barely cast his eye upon a map of one of our farms, 

 with all its irregular and unnecessary subdivisions. The addi- 

 tional labor of cultivating a farm, thus irregularly laid out, is 

 another and an important item in the expense of New England 

 farming. The difference between cultivating a field of a large 

 size in the form of a square or parallelogram, or the same 

 quantity in the form of a triangle, or divided into four or five 

 lots of irregular shape, may be plainly discovered by observing 

 the difference in the temper of the driver, the team, and the 

 ploughman, while working in the latter and in the former. If 

 it takes a whole day to plough a piece containing one acre, 

 twenty rods by eight rods, lengthwise, it will take more than 

 one day to plough two half acres the same way, ten by eight 

 rods. If a team, in ploughing the former piece, turns about 

 132 times, in ploughing the latter it must turn about twice that 

 number, 264 times. We have been informed by farm laborers, 

 who have worked in the new states, that they have ploughed 



