SECRETARY'S REPORT. 193 



Another advantage of concentrated farming in a large popu- 

 lation is, that we may have a much better return of manure ; 

 and thus the farm that feeds the village is itself fed by the 

 village. If our products are all carried oif so far that there is 

 little opportunity to obtain anything in the form of night soil 

 for the farm, our land will be steadily exhausted. Such a policy 

 cannot be finally successful. The village enables us readily to 

 maintain the farm, while the farm, in return, maintains it. Thus 

 our soil, often impoverished by poor culture, especially requires 

 the aid that comes from manufactures. 



This condens'ed farming is also called for by the consideration 

 of economy ; indeed, it is economy which chiefly demands it. 

 Take a field of cold clay soil, that the team turns with difficulty, 

 the unbroken sods falling over completely, and settling after 

 each rain as hard as before. There is great labor in breaking 

 up such a field, as compared with one that has been cultivated 

 a long time, and, by draining, reduced to a light loam. On the 

 one ground, the grain comes up feeble and thin ; on the other, 

 evenly, and with great certainty of a full yield. 



A chief reason why farmers are so remiss in doing all that is 

 necessary for the complete success of their labors — losing half 

 the result by omitting a third of the toil, endangering the 

 entire crop by a little negligence in preparation or protection — 

 is, that they have adopted a wrong method ; that they are more 

 ambitious of large than of good farms, and lay upon themselves 

 burdens which they cannot easily or securely carry. They have 

 no time for that early attention and careful supervision which 

 economy requires. They suffer all the accidents of things left to 

 ■ themselves. Fences are broken down, and crops and cows 

 injured. Diseases gain ground in the flock, and sadly reduce 

 its profits ; orchards are planted and left to the grub, and to be 

 worried and broken in the winter and spring by cattle, that lose 

 by their liberty ; tools, wagons and sleighs shrink in the sun, 

 swell in the rain, and in use, suddenly give way, to the arrest of 

 labor, and tlie damage of temper and property. 



On the river of chances, the overtaxed and negligent farmer 

 is always rowing up the stream, doing with loss, and at the 

 hardest, what nature, a little more skilfully and patiently man- 

 aged, would spontaneously do for him. As contrasted with 

 other men, farmers, while often penurious, are also most 



25* 



