76 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



THE FARMER'S CONFLICT. 



From an Address before the Norfolk Agricultural Society. 



BY GEORGE B. LORING. 



The day of instinctive, traditional agriculture and spontaneous 

 crops has gone by, with us at least. We look back with aston- 

 ishment upon the time, when, unaided by science, the practical 

 mind of man seized hold of the most successful methods and 

 accomplished the highest results. What do we not owe to the 

 past generations of the working farmers ? It is they who have 

 discovered that remarkable system of drainage by which the 

 hard and unyielding bed of clay becomes, through the agency 

 of a simple circulatory tube, as obedient to the hand of tlie cul- 

 tivator as the warmest and most fertile loams. They have 

 brought out of wild and useless classes of plants the nutritious 

 grains and luxuriant fruits which nourish and delight. They 

 have seized and tamed the species of animals adapted to their 

 wants, and have produced every variety of breed which diversity 

 of soil and climate and market may require. The heavy Short- 

 horn makes haste to repay them for his food by a rapid produc- 

 tion of beef. The hardy and patient Ayrshire devotes all her 

 faculties to an abundant supply for your dairy. The clumsy 

 draught horse learns readily the duty which has been imposed 

 upon his phlegmatic family. The racer and the roadster are 

 ever alert in the service to which you have specially assigned 

 them. You have learned the capacity of your lands, and un- 

 derstand what fertilizers they require, as well as you know the 

 food which will best nourish your domestic animals. You have 

 discovered how to subdue nature, and go forth to the first step 

 of the process with axe upon your shoulder, as confident of the 

 result of the contest as if the blooming fields were already 

 before you. 



