256 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Gather seeds when ripe, and not before. Never allow seeds, 

 after being gathered, to heat or mould. See that seeds are kept 

 secure from frost iintil they are dry enough to resist its action. 



T. G. Huntington. 



AGRICULTURAL SURVEY. 



By a vote passed by the Board at the meeting at Worcester, 

 as presented on a previous page, each member was requested to 

 prepare some account of the principal agricultural features of 

 his own district, including statistics of stock, individual practices 

 which might be thought worthy of public notice, &c. 



This vote contemplated what may be called an Agricultural 

 Survey of the State, and it is evident that if such a report could 

 be .obtained from every section, it would give a very compre- 

 hensive view of the leading and most striking features of our 

 agriculture, interesting alike for present study and future 

 reference. 



Though the reports do not cover every section of the Com- 

 monwealth, they are general enough to be of great interest, and 

 they are arranged together in the following pages for convenience 

 of reference. The first, presented by Mr. Thompson, refers to 

 the island and 



COUNTY OF NANTUCKET. 

 Farming and sheep-husbandry, in the county of Nantucket, 

 till within twenty years, were conducted on somewhat of a gen- 

 eral company style, so far as the common and undivided lands 

 were used, there being about fifteen thousand acres, on which 

 not a tree or shrub over three feet high was then growing. 

 These lands were owned in common and undivided shares and 

 interests, of from one acre to several thousand acres, by persons 

 present, and the heirs of others deceased, or removed from the 

 county. Knowing it would not pay to get a set-off, they agreed 

 to partition them into sections, and farm one. while pasturing 

 another. This plan was continued until, by cropping and 

 pasturing without manure, they had impoverished them so much 

 that, about 1822, it was decided not to plant any more, but to 

 throw the whole into one great pasture for cattle and sheep, the 

 latter getting their own living all the year through, by browsing 

 on these impoverished lands, or getting into mowing lots and 



