FARMS. 161 



the comfort or the pecuniary advantage of a good garden. 

 Instead of making it the earliest, they make it the latest of 

 their spring labors. Hence they have only a late and small 

 supply of vegetables ; two or three little rows of pease, a few 

 beans, a small patch of sweet corn, &c., whereas with a reason- 

 able amount of labor bestowed early upon the garden, they might 

 have an abundant supply through the summer and fall. No 

 part of the farm pays so well as a garden, and if any part is to 

 be neglected it must not be this. It goes far towards diminish- 

 ing the butcher's bill, and tends to good health and to freedom 

 from disorders occasioned by an almost exclusively flesh diet. 

 A good garden is eminently economical, to say nothing of the 

 pleasure of having a constant supply of fresh, tender and 

 wholesome vegetables and fruit of one's own raising. Let the 

 land be exposed to the sun, ploughed deep, manured well and 

 planted early. We have noticed in many gardens that the 

 onions did not bottom or grow large. In nearly every instance, 

 if not in all, we found that they were planted late. Onions 

 must be planted early ; in our climate, from the middle to the 

 last of April, if a large crop is expected. 



Of market gardening it is not necessary to speak at length. 

 The skill and success of Norfolk gardeners is proverbial. We 

 visited several large market-farms in Brookline, that were per- 

 fect models of neatness, beauty and productiveness. Nothing 

 could exceed the thoroughness and carefulness of their cultiva- 

 tion. Other and similar farms of great excellence are to be 

 found in Dorchester, West Roxbury, and the towns in the 

 vicinity of Boston. 



During the past year there has been a large number of 

 unnatural deaths among swine, — unnatural for them because 

 not by the knife. We do not know that attention has been 

 extensively called to this subject, but we hope in the course of 

 another year to collect sufficient information to justify an 

 expression of opinion upon several points : the cause of the 

 numerous deaths, whether any one breed is specially liable to 

 fatal disorders, or whether any profitable -breed is more gen- 

 erally healthy than others. We have learned that in numerous 

 instances the pigs that died were recently taken from droves out 

 of Illinois and other western States. Many persons have ceased 



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