86 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



insoii, ill his History of Massachusetts, piihlishcd in 17G0, says: 

 "There is a tradition tliat the grass called fowl meadow grass, 

 which is superior to any other grass of the fresh water meadows? 

 was first brought to the meadows in Dcdliam by a large flight of 

 wild fowls, and that from thence the grass, and the meadows 

 where it was first discovered, and from whence it has been 

 communicated to many parts of the country, took their names." 

 Vol. 1, p. 425. Dr. Nathaniel Ames, Sen., the celebrated 

 almanac maker, father of Fisher Ames, in his Almanac for 1764, 

 adds the date, — not very precise, however, — of the supposed 

 introduction of the grass here. He says : " The famous fowl 

 meadow grass was brought into a spacious meadow on Neponset 

 River, by the wild fowl which frequent that place, where it first 

 made its appearance about fifty years ago," that is, about the 

 beginning of the last century. " The seed is now collected," 

 he adds, " and carried into various parts of the country." 



In a multitude of ways intelligence adds greatly to the satis- 

 faction of country labor ; it ligiitens its burdens, relieves its 

 tediousness, and renders it not more, but less distasteful." 

 William Howitt, in his book on " The Rural Life of England," 

 reports the following reply of a " farming man," of some 

 intellectual culture, to the question, " whether reading did not 

 render him less satisfied with his daily work." " Before he read," 

 he says, " his work was weary to him ; for in solitary fields, an 

 empty head measured the time out tediously to double its 

 length ; but now, no place was so sweet as the solitary fields ; he 

 had always something pleasant floating across his mind ; and 

 the labor was delightful and the day only too short." He 

 subsequently adds : " The study of nature is not only the most 

 delightful, but the most elevating. This will be true in every 

 station of life. But how much more ought the poor man to 

 prize this study ! which, if prized and pursued as it ought, will 

 enable him to bear with patient resignation and cheefulness, the 

 lot by Providence assigned to him. 0, sir, I pity the working 

 man who possesses not a taste for reading, which will enable him, 

 while he participates in intellectual enjoyment, to prize, as he 

 ought, his character as a man in every relative duty of life." 



I have thus spoken, not as I would, but as I could, within 

 the limits I have prescribed to myself in this address, of the 

 advantages of reading and intellectual culture in a farming 



