96 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



they are of great service, unless the source of too much damp- 

 ness. It is incredible, to an unobserver of the facts, how per- 

 ceptibly masses of trees affect temperature and moisture. Where 

 land is plenty and cheap, it is singular that groves and screens 

 are not oftener planted. 



Where trees are trimmed to hedges, they become ornamental 

 divisions or borders, are easily cared for, and add much to the 

 value of any place. We have hedges of the Norway spruce, 

 hemlock, arbor-vitse, holly, weigelia, honey locust and cornus 

 sanguinea. 



Artificial ponds, like hedges, on a place called a farm, may 

 be viewed by some as superfluities. To others they are a great 

 source of pleasure, and not unprofitable. We long since dis- 

 carded the dunghill fowl as too troublesome, and find water 

 fowls more remunerative in themselves, while they decoy valu- 

 able wild game instead of hawks. The question has also been 

 settled by cultivators of fish, that an acre of water surface may 

 be made to pay better than an acre of land merely. 



Glass houses also compensate, except to the exclusively utili- 

 tarian, whose income is only in dollars and cents. We have 

 been many years building three of these, thereby obviating 

 much extra labor, and at the same time have some of the most 

 scientific and convenient structures in the country, unsurpassed 

 for the purposes intended. We thus have employment for self 

 .and family the year round, and with only one man for help, 

 quite enough of a good thing — care. 



It might be deemed presumption to present a farm of sixteen 

 acres to the consideration of your Committee, had not one of 

 only fifteen been offered and accepted last year. It is, however, 

 on the idea of " ten acres enough," " a small farm well tilled," 

 and the like, that it is undoubtedly justified. 



Our profit and excellence, if any, have not been in the many 

 acres carried on by numerous hired men, with a list of merely 

 profitable and perhaps forced crops, without annual and perma- 

 nent improvements. On the contrary, we have only put in 

 practice our theory, advanced some twelve years ago, in the 

 annual address before the society, on Home Improvement. 



We have perfected a few acres, doing the right thing at the 

 right time, and added so much to their nominal and real value 

 for the comfort and tastes of life, that for the original outlay 



