144 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



opinion should be entitled to some consideration. Said he, why 

 is it that so large a portion of your island lies uncultivated, 

 while so many of your people are seeking employment ? Sim- 

 ply because the land is barren and unproductive. But why not 

 go to work and make it productive ? Because the expense of 

 manure, &c., would make it cost more than it would yield. 

 Then, said he, make it without manure. As this idea struck 

 us as being the quintessence of absurdity, our only reply was a 

 prolonged stare. The gentleman seemed amused at our per- 

 plexity, and presently inquired whether we had ever practised 

 ploughing under green crops as a means of manuring the land. 

 We replied, that as far as we knew, no such practice had ever 

 obtained in this county, and expressed our doubts as to its being 

 any cheaper than the ordinary way of manuring. To this he 

 replied that he would relate the experience of a neighbor of his, 

 which came under his own observation, and which might per- 

 haps tend to alter our views on the subject. 



Some six years ago, said he, there came a man from the East- 

 ern States to Illinois, and located on a tract of barren land, for 

 which he paid five dollars per acre. Having exhausted his 

 means in purchase of the land, he commenced work for his 

 neighbors, and as soon as he had earned enough to purchase 

 seed, he had the land ploughed and sown with mammoth clover. 

 This crop in due time he ploughed under, and then put in bar- 

 ley, which at maturity he cut as high as possible, turning under 

 the stubble, and threshing out the grain, which he sold for 

 enough to pay the expense of seed and ploughing, leaving a 

 surplus equivalent to one dollar and a quarter per day for each 

 day's work which he himself had done on the land. This 

 process he repeated, and at the end of five years the land was 

 in a condition to raise one hundred bushels of corn to the acre, 

 and other crops in proportion. He is now offered two hundred 

 dollars per acre, which he refuses. Now, said he, I have passed 

 over hundreds of acres of your commons, which I consider bet- 

 ter land to begin this process upon than the land of which I 

 have been speaking. 



In view of the above statement, the Committee would sug- 

 gest to the society the propriety of ploughing an acre of ground 

 in their enclosure, with the view of testing this method for the 



