304 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and thirty acres of land each. He has educated one or two sons 

 at college, and still holds over 150 acres, perhaps none of which 

 now would sell for less than a hundred dollars per acre. 



Such success, however, is not to be calculated in dollars and 

 cents. It has an intrinsic value to him who has achieved it, 

 while as an example of an original, discriminating mind, working 

 out, through long years of uncertainty, its own agricultural 

 problem, it is worth tenfold its cost in money. 



An obvious reflection, too, is the fact that this wealth is 

 created. An entire community might do as he has done. There 

 has been no robbing of the western prairies, the islands of the 

 Pacific, nor the treasures of the sea. He has used but the solid 

 rocks of New England or Nova Scotia for his fertilizers, and 

 with these he has so manipulated, that every successive addition 

 to his acres seemed to feel the magic of his influence, and spring 

 almost at once from an ordinary condition into unwonted 

 fertility. T. G. Huntington. 



HAMPDEN. 



The soil of Hampden County consists of the rich alluvial 

 meadows bordering upon the Connecticut and Westfield Rivers, 

 the light sand plains which lie in close proximity to these allu- 

 vial lands, (particularly upon the east of the Connecticut,) and 

 the hard granitic soils which prevail at a greater distance ; the 

 two latter constituting far the largest area. 



From the facilities of public communication, and from other 

 causes, the valleys are most frequently visited, and best known ; 

 and an estimate of its agricultural resources, founded on this 

 partial view, is much beyond its real merit. 



The Connecticut Valley at this point is about one mile in width, 

 while beyond, the surface rises more or less abruptly, and you 

 come upon the level plain upon the east, or the more broken 

 and somewhat mountainous surface on the west. A soil thus 

 diversified requires, of course, equal diversity of tillage and 

 farm management. To devote these rich, arable lands, mainly 

 to permanent pasture, would be no less absurd, than for those 

 occupying the higher, and more sterile portions, to go exten- 

 sively into a system of soiling and grain producing. 



Whatever theory may claim, the wise and skilful farmer will 

 first adapt his crops to the soil he has to deal with ; and then, 



