512 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



furrows a mile in length in one field. In such a case, but little 

 time is lost in stopping the team and turning about at the end 

 of the field. 



These facts may seem to some trifling, but they are of prac- 

 tical importance. We need, therefore, another branch of sci- 

 ence, which might be called the " geometry of farming." The 

 mode of laying out our farms into lots of the form requiring 

 the least length of fence and the most convenient and econom- 

 ical for cultivation, is deserving of attention, and seems to have 

 been almost entirely overlooked in New England. A little 

 examination will satisfy any one, that the manner in which our 

 farms are laid out and subdivided, is inconvenient, expensive, 

 and the cause of much loss of time and labor in their cultiva- 

 tion. 



There is one method of iruproving our farms, and rendering 

 them more valuable and profitable, which should receive more 

 attention at this age of the country, that of the appropriation 

 of waste lands to the growth of wood and timber. This re- 

 mark is intended to apply particularly to the southern, eastern, 

 and central portions of the State. In these parts of the State, 

 almost every farmer has large quantities of waste, or unim- 

 proved lands, unfit for pasturage or cultivation, from which he 

 derives but little, if any profit. Such lands may generally be 

 devoted to the growth of wood and timber. It is a good in- 

 vestment. The growth of a v/ood lot, in these parts of the 

 State, will, as a general rule, yield the farmer more than six 

 per cent, interest, and that too without subjecting him to a 

 charge of usury. There are many fields, which have been al- 

 most entirely exhausted of all fertility by constant cropping 

 without manuring, and have been abandoned for years to hope- 

 less sterility, trodden only by the rambling feet of the cattle 

 that fed upon their scanty herbage. These fields, if cattle are 

 prevented from feeding them, will usually, though gradually, 

 become covered with a growth of some species of wood, to 

 which the condition of the soil is adapted. In the southern 

 part of Massachusetts, the first growth on such lands will con- 

 sist principally of white or black pine and the white birch. 

 This process is now going on in a field of the above descrip- 



