88 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



has not yet been developed. Thousands of acres of our best 

 land lie waste, or yielding at most a stunted growth of wood or 

 a little coarse hay and sour grass. Our farmers returned nearly 

 an acre of unimproved land for every acre of improved. Now 

 if one-twentieth of the unimproved land were planted in corn, 

 it would give, at thirty bushels per acre, a gain nearly equal to 

 the present crop ; if another twentieth were sowed to rye, at 

 twenty bushels per acre, the crop would be about four times the 

 present one ; a twentieth in barley, at twenty-five bushels per 

 acre, would give more than eight times the present crop ; one- 

 twentieth in wheat, at fifteen bushels per acre, would be 773,130 

 bushels, or about sixteen times tlie amount now raised ; one- 

 tenth in oats, yielding twenty-five bushels per acre, a crop four 

 times the present ; two-fifths in hay, at one and one-fourth tons 

 per acre, and the hay crop would be doubled ; if the remaining 

 five-twentieths were brought into good pasturage, and two acres 

 made to support a cow, more than 125,000 of this valuable and 

 profitable part of our stock could be added to our present num- 

 ber. Large as the products would then appear, who will say 

 the maximum point would be attained ; for the average yield of 

 the acres now termed improved could be easily raised twenty- 

 five per cent., and still be below what it produces under the 

 management of our best cultivators. That greater progress in 

 our agriculture can and ought to be made, none will question ; 

 but are the tillers of the soil, under present circumstances, able 

 to bring it up to the desired standard ? If all the means within 

 their reach are persistently and faithfully used, the prospects 

 are encouraging. The transition state through which they are 

 passing will soon be over, and things settle down to a more per- 

 manent basis. The work they have to do, and the best manner 

 of doing it, will be better understood ; and it is to be hoped that 

 ere long the migration from the farm will be checked. It was 

 an important step towards progress when an institution was pro- 

 vided for educating our young farmers for the work they are to 

 assume. Hitherto the existing means for acquiring that educa- 

 tion were inadequate to the exigencies of the case, and all plans 

 proposed to meet the deficiency failed to receive the hearty ap- 

 proval of those who were to be benefited thereby. Teaching 

 the agricultural sciences in the public schools would only give 

 a smattering of the rudiments ; and, judging from the past, lit- 



