194 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



uneconomical and wasteful. A few leading crops are relied on, 

 to the neglect of the many sources of minor and incidental gain. 

 Fruit, which makes a large claim on foresight and care, and 

 little on labor ; which, once secured, gives abundant and easy 

 returns, suffers very general neglect. Manure, whose methods 

 of acquisition need to be constant, thorough and complete ; 

 upon whose presence the success of other labor so much depends ; 

 is generally through a want of providence, increased by no com- 

 post heap, no careful accumulation, while one-half or two-thirds 

 of what nature forces upon the farmer is lost by evaporation, 

 drainage, and neglect. 



Cattle and sheep, in the cold winds and storms of autumn and 

 early winter, are neglected, allowed to feed on frost-bitten 

 meadows, giving the appearance of fulness and flesh without the 

 fact, and stripping the soil of its just protection and nutriment. 



The ways of waste on a farm are great and innumerable, and 

 the farmer, made negligent and inattentive by over-labor, by a 

 hasty, slovenly, and inadequate method, will stumble upon most 

 of them. A ruinous, leaky, rat-infested barn, fretting lean 

 cattle with cold winds from every quarter, will, with one stroke 

 of loss, reduce profits by half. 



The mechanic would be utterly ruined by a negligence 

 familiar to many, if not most, farmers. 



Another mischief arising from this diffusion of overtasked 

 labor, is the entire neglect to which it leads, of taste and beauty. 



Farmers are the most fortunate class in the materials and 

 and opportunities at their disposal for making the home snug 

 and attractive. That which involves heavy expenditure in 

 others, comes to them as a matter of course in their very busi- 

 ness. Yards, trees, fields, forests, meadows, all the means of 

 natural adornment, are at their disposal. At no point does 

 mental show its superiority over mere physical labor more mark- 

 edly than at this. The exercise of a little taste in the construc- 

 tion of buildings, in the planting of trees and arrangement of 

 grounds, will, with scarcely any exertion, fascinate the eye, 

 impart an impression of comfort, and greatly enhance the value 

 of a farm. 



Good judgment and good taste bring a high price, and, at the 

 same time, much more than compensate any labor they impose 

 by the unusual pleasure which attends their exercise. 



