130 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



his life have been surrounded and adorned with valuable infor- 

 mation, back to the irregularly and half-cultivated farm of his 

 father, and let us imagine what would be the result. Is it un- 

 reasonable to suppose that the rough, untrimmed and decaying 

 orchards too often seen in this county, would begin to beautify 

 his farm and reward his toil? Will not all that misapplied 

 labor, Avhich more than any thing else impoverishes our farmers, 

 be systematized and made profitable ? Might we not expect to 

 see the scanty crops which are raked from reluctant hillsides, 

 and whi^h mock the cultivator, giving place to the luxurious 

 products brought forth from the teeming earth by deep cultiva- 

 tion and an intelligent application of fertilizing stimulants ? 

 Might we not be confident of seeing such farmers as those we 

 have described in this report, the rule and not the exception ? 

 If there has really been a " wasteful and exhausting system of 

 cultivation" in New England, under which our land has so 

 deteriorated, that, as has been said, " a thousand millions of 

 dollars would be required to repair the effects " of it, how can 

 we hope to bring our farms to their fertility, except by such a 

 cultivation of agricultural zeal and agricultural knowledge as 

 we have spoken of? A thou.sand millions of dollars improp- 

 erly applied would make the matter 'worse. A thousandth 

 part of that sum in the hands of a well-educated community, 

 would more than repair the damage, for agriculture rightly 

 directed is sure of its reward. The earth is never slow to re- 

 cognize her benefactor, and while she still meets man with 

 the " thorns and briars " of the primal curse, she has also a 

 generous response to the appeal made to her bounteousness by 

 " the sweat of his brow." 



The cultivation of the earth is not the most discouraging and 

 profitless of all branches of business. Its accumulations may 

 be slow, and they may not be colossal ; but they are not over- 

 loaded with those obligations and necessities wdiich are. the 

 burdens of great fortunes, and which pinch as sharply as pov- 

 erty itself. The wealth which it pours into the lap of a nation, 

 comes not in swollen streams whose floods have drained a con- 

 tinent into arid deserts, but it flows down through a luxuriant 

 country, fertilized by its thousand rills, whose waters bless all 

 alike. In our farming population the extremes of poverty and 

 riches arc unknown. J'hc one iiundred and ten millions qi 



