154 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



setts, and the manner in which it should be done. Although I 

 have spoken of but three branches of our pursuit, those which 

 it seems to me will for years to come be our leading pursuits, I 

 am well aware that there are many other branches of important 

 and of somewhat extensive culture, for which a judicious rota- 

 tion might be an important aid, but to make definite rules for 

 them all would be a herculean task, and probably an utter 

 impossibility. A few leading principles should be clearly un- 

 derstood, and the intelligence a;nd common sense of each indi- 

 vidual must direct to the true course. The principles are : first, 

 use all the manure you can make or get, and use manure which 

 contains all the elements of plant-food. Second, rotate your 

 crops to aid in preserving the fertility of your fields, and follow 

 your present crop with one composed of dilFerent, or of differ- 

 ent proportions of the elements of plant-food, organic and inor- 

 ganic. Third, follow the present crop with one which shall 

 change the physical condition of the soil, or have an amelio- 

 rating influence upon it. 



These principles steadily and persistently adhered to, will 

 lead us by a broad, open highway to success. Success in the 

 preserved fertility and producing power of the soil, and success 

 in the pocket of the owner. 



The President. Gentlemen, you hare a very broad subject 

 before you this morning ; perhaps the most interesting subject 

 that can come before a Board of Agriculture. The subject is 

 now open for remarks by any gentleman present. I hope you 

 will occupy the time. 



Dr. Reed, of Pittsfield. I want to express the pleasure with 

 which I have listened to Prof. Stockbridge's lecture. I think we 

 have had laid before us the true principles of farming. It is but 

 a few years since a kind of vague impression prevailed among 

 the people that plants grew by something that they derived, by 

 some inherent power, from the elements. They knew a crea- 

 ture must be fed, or it could not grow, but a plant grew, and 

 there was an end of the matter. And it is but a few years since 

 the idea was, that rocks grew as well as plants. But those days 

 have gone by. I was pleased with the lecture, because it ap- 

 pears to me that the true principles upon which we are to make 

 improvements have been laid before us. I have no confidence 



