10 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



be made a regular branch of study in an extended course of an 

 English education." 



Hon. Allen W. Dodge, at Andover, September 28, 1842, en- 

 couraged the fruit-growers of this county with the declaration 

 that " the apples of Essex may yet be as widely celebrated as 

 the oranges of Havana." He also stated, with much good 

 judgment, that " extensive cultivation of root crops is the basis 

 of good husbandry in Great Britain, and I see no good reason 

 why it should not be with us." He urged " the personal visi- 

 tation of farms that are distinguished for good management in 

 general or for excellence in any specific department." 



Hon. Leverett Saltonstall, speaking eloquently at Andover 

 September 27, 1843, said, in defence of agricultural societies : 

 " No one now opposes or attempts to cast ridicule on these asso- 

 ciations, which are spreading over our broad land, and whose 

 good effects are seen in improved cultivation, not only in our 

 own blessed New England, but in the States of the far West ; 

 and their light has broken in upon those less-favored regions, 

 where labor is not held in that honorable estimation which it 

 must enjoy before a community can be truly prosperous." 



Hon. John W. Proctor, the appointed speaker at Salem in 

 1844, said well, " As soon should I expect a man to be skilful 

 in the management of a ship who has never been upon the 

 water, or expert in chemical experiments who had never been 

 in a laboratory, as to understand tlie necessary processes of 

 farming without actual personal experience in them." " Culti- 

 vate," said he, " so much land as can be well done, and no 

 more ; and leave no part of the process of cultivation slightly 

 performed." 



Rev. Edwin M. Stone delivered the address at Ipswich, Sep- 

 tember 24, 1845. He said, in a long and elaborate document, 

 " It has always seemed to me a reproval to the farming interests 

 of this country that it should depend on foreign supplies of 

 improved stock, when it can easily be supplied at home." Not 

 so easily as some might suppose. He stated that " good pasture 

 is as essential to the best results of the dairy as it is to the best 

 appearance of stock ; " urged soiling milch cows, and expressed 

 the opinion that " the product of a single acre will suffice for 

 ten or fifteen cows, and give them their fill." 



