280 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Albert Fearing, of Hingham, has two Southdown bucks 

 and twenty ewes, and Alfred C. Hersey one buck ; Mr. Davis, of 

 Plymouth, has a few Oxford Down ewes ; and Henry Stowell, of 

 Hingham, one buck ; and there are some bucks in other parts of 

 the county, claimed to be, respectively, Oxford Down, Cotswold 

 and Leicester ; but we cannot vouch for them. Mr. Fearing, of 

 Hingham, has three Shropshire Downs ; John R. Brewer, of 

 Hingham, has ten Leicester ewes and one buck ; Israel Whit- 

 comb, of Hingham, has a Cotswold buck ; and other Cotswolds 

 are owned in that town, which has j&ne sheep pastures. 



The trustees have been informally requested to give in their 

 report some account of the farming in this county, with instan- 

 ces of individual culture or experience. To the citizens of this 

 county this seems hardly necessary. We content ourselves with 

 saying that we believe that more attention is paid to farming, as 

 a separate interest, than heretofore ; and there are many instan- 

 ces of successful agricultural industry in the county. The 

 statistics of the industry of Massachusetts will be published this 

 winter by the legislature, from which much valuable information 

 will be obtained. These statistics will show that there is a 

 considerable gain in special products, and in average value of 

 neat stock, and a considerable increase in the number of sheep 

 kept in the county. 



The principal crops, in the order of their value, are undoubt- 

 edly grass, Indian corn, potatoes, turnips, rye, oats, carrots and 

 barley. The supervisor of crops of the Plymouth County 

 Society writes that " the usual practice with English meadows 

 which require new seeding, if fit for tillage, is to seed with 

 spring grain, after one, two or three years' tillage crops ; but 

 that, when ploughed after haying, and seeded down immediately, 

 beneficial results, as well as a mature crop the next season, are 

 obtained." The greatest objection to this latter practice upon 

 our drier upland meadows, arises from the difficulty of plough- 

 ing during the dry Augusts which affect this county. A consid- 

 erable portion of the Indian corn, and nearly all the rye raised, 

 is grown upon pasture land, without special reference to securing 

 a large yield, or to materially improving the soil, but to rid it of 

 bushes and briars, the increased sweetness of the feed after 

 cultivation being one of the objects sought in the operation. 



