156 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



this thing can be done, fish farming will become one of the most 

 profitable branches of industry. I have no doubt that, in all 

 these ways, our farming will be made much more profitable 

 than now. 



Dr. Hartwell, of Southbridge. I do not rise to controvert 

 the least thing that the gentleman has said. I subscribe to the 

 whole of it, with very few exceptions. His remarks to you in 

 relation to agricultural education were most excellent — not to 

 be improved. I rise for the purpose of giving you a few facts 

 in regard to my own experience in farming. I was brought up 

 on a farm ; I have held the plough, used the scythe, the fork, 

 the rake and the axe, and I am proud of it. I have been en- 

 gaged for half a century in a most laborious profession, — that of 

 the practice of medicine ; but I never have lost sight of the 

 farm ; I never have lost my interest in the farm ; it has been 

 one of my darling employments. 



About thirty years ago some twenty-five acres of poor land 

 came into my possession, and I made up my mind to improve 

 that land so that it would be worth something ; and I have done 

 it. When I began, my neighbors said : " What are you going 

 to do with that land ? Every day's labor will be lost." I under- 

 drained ten acres of that land and took out the rocks. It cost 

 me 'flOO to remove the rocks. I then ploughed it to the depth 

 of seven inches, and then subsoiled it to the depth of seven 

 inches more. This soil was naturally poor, sour and wet ; but, 

 by underdraining it, I have brought it into such condition that 

 it produces all I ever expect of it. 



But there is one fact further which is more important than 

 anything else. Look at our farms in New England, and see 

 what they are now. The farmers must take them as they are. 

 Now, what is the proportion of the land that has been cultivated 

 and been under the plough ? I should think about twenty per 

 cent, of the whole surface of the land in Massachusetts, and 

 Massachusetts will perhaps serve as a sample for all New 

 England. What are the crops that are produced upon these 

 acres ? What is the proportion of the corn crop to the hay 

 crop and the wheat crop ? The corn crop, a few years ago, 

 gave about twenty-five bushels to the acre ; now it gives some- 

 thing like thirty or thirty-five bushels to the acre. The average 

 hay crop has been less than one ton throughout Massachusetts. 



