6 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



farm ; Green Food, comprehending carrots, the great beet, or 

 mangel wurtzel, the Swedish turnip and Indian corn plants 

 while abounding in sweet juices ; Ripened Indian Corn and 

 Wheat" — a large field to be tilled, it seems to me, in one 

 day. He says, " My own practice since has been conformed 

 to this conclusion : diligently ploughing in all manure as soon 

 as spread, even so far as to spread in the morning no more than 

 could be ploughed in before the hour of dining, and while the 

 cattle were eating to spread only so much more as they could 

 plough in by night." " I am induced to think the spreading 

 of dung on grass land the most wasteful way in which it can be 

 used." Of cattle he says, " I would inquire whether giving 

 rewards for the biggest and the fattest is the best method of 

 obtaining the most valuable breeds." " In fattening cattle and 

 sheep there is a point to be attained at which their flesh will be 

 of the best quality and most valuable to the consumer. Is not 

 all beyond this a waste of time and expense in their keeping? " 

 He says in the same address that Swedish turnips should be 

 sowed early in May ; and that no green food " will afford butter 

 of equal excellence " with that produced by green corn fodder 

 — two points in which farmers of this day would differ from 

 him. 



Again, on February 21, 1820, Col. Pickering addressed the 

 society, in accordance with a vote of the trustees. He discussed 

 deep ploughing and manuring, root crops, Indian corn and win- 

 ter wheat, live stock and orchards — giving his views on these 

 subjects with wisdom and practical good sense. 



Andrew Nichols was the next orator. He delivered the 

 address at Topsfield, October 5, 1820, in which he urged the 

 farmers who listened to him to " cultivate no more land than 

 can be thoroughly ploughed, well manured at once, and kept 

 free from weeds." "Never keep land many years under the 

 same crops." " Never lay land into grass except it be well 

 prepared and in very rich condition." 



October 17, 1821. Rev. Abiel Abbott, one of the soundest 

 thinkers of his day, and one of the most careful scholars and 

 patrons of letters, stepped down from the pulpit, and, in an 

 address delivered at the annual exhibition at Danvers, declared 

 that " Every attentive farmer has doubtless observed that the 

 best manure is taken from under cover, from his sheep or cattle 



