118 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



tne forum, for the even pulse which marks the equanimity and 

 strength caught from the broad earth and the overarching sky ; 

 a relief, too, which the practical farmer would appreciate if he 

 would desert his acres for a season, and take his stand in the 

 narrow and crowded and hurried spheres of more restless life. 

 The man who is called upon to witness the agricultural opera- 

 tions of a community, has, therefore a higher satisfaction than 

 any mere survey of business can give ; he lays up a store of 

 pleasant associations, and cultivates tastes which may perhaps 

 give him hours of pleasure, as they have many a man before 

 him. 



We cannot doubt that these feelings filled the mind of that 

 enlightened farmer, true patriot and distinguished statesman, 

 who, amid the cares of life, found repose on his farm in Essex 

 county, and who, as the first president of our society, intro- 

 duced the plan of duties which have this year devolved upon 

 us. For a long time, now more than thirty years, the discharge 

 of the work connected with the viewing of farms, has been 

 among the most agreeable incidents of the society ; and the 

 statements of our farmers, and the reports upon their farms, 

 are among the most valuable of our papers. We remember 

 with pleasure the accounts given of farms in Andovcr, West 

 Newbury, Newbury, Danvers, Hamilton, Ipswich, Salem, and 

 many other towns ; and we remember, too, with great satisfac- 

 tion the lessons derived from these records of experience. And 

 we regret that of late years, the statements presented have 

 been so meagre, and the number of applicants for premiums so 

 small, that a change of plan has been suggested, by which some 

 specific object, and not an entire farm with all its various ope- 

 rations, should be brought before the committee. We would 

 most earnestly urge upon our farmers a return to the interest 

 felt in tliis matter formerly, with the assurance that no question 

 in agriculture is more important than that Avhich involves the 

 general management of the farm, and throws light upon any 

 system wliicli can be applied to this great branch of business. 

 For although the mode of reclaiming a swamp may be the same 

 throughout New England, although drainage may be adopted 

 in one state, county or town, as well as in another, although 

 the application of manures to different soils may admit of some 

 universal rule, still there are no two farms whose capacities and 



