MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 675 



our intelligent population. Just so long as this is delayed will 

 the brightest days of our agricultural prosperity be kept back. 

 All other means will, in my opinion, be insufficient without 

 schools. 



I noticed that the principal field devoted to the spirited 

 ploughing match was in many places full of drift, and I was 

 interested to see how adroitly the ploughmen contrived to turn 

 strait furrows in spite of frequent bowlders. I was struck with 

 the marked superiority of the ploughs over those I had seen 

 employed in Europe, especially on the continent. In the vast 

 meadows along the Rhine I had seen fine ploughing ; but an 

 American farmer would laugh at their ploughs, and I think it 

 would have been an amusing sight if some of those imple- 

 ments, with Belgian or Rhenish farmers to guide them, had 

 been present attempting to compete with the farmers of Essex 

 in a field abounding with pebbles and bowlders. 



It was interesting, at this exhibition, to see manufacturers 

 and farmers brought into such close and harmonious juxtapo- 

 sition. This is just as it always should be : that is, these two 

 great interests should mutually sustain each other. The me- 

 chanics of Lawrence did not fail to adorn the walls and tables 

 of the hall with rich specimens of their labors. 



Of the agricultural products exhibited, I thought the fruits 

 and garden vegetables the best. And if I do not mistake 

 Essex County is distinguished for the superiority of her pomo- 

 logical and horticultural products. Whether this is owing to 

 higher skill and greater diligence, or may in part be attributed 

 to some peculiar ingredients in the soil, is a point not easily 

 settled. But I will venture a suggestion. Essex County, more 

 generally than any other part of the State, is based upon un- 

 stratified rocks, such as granite, syenite and trap. The two pre- 

 dominant minerals in these rocks are feldspar and hornblende 

 — the first containing at least fifteen per cent, of potash and one 

 or two per cent, of soda ; and the latter seven or eight per cent, 

 of lime. May it not be, that we have in these ingredients of 

 the rocks, especially the potash, which gets into the soil by 

 decomposition, more or less, one of the secrets of success that 

 has attended the cultivation of fruits and garden vegetables in 

 Essex ? The best fruit orchards that I have seen are situated 

 upon stony and uneven ground, and where the bowlders or the 



