50 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



beginning to realize tliat the grass cut by a mowing-machine is 

 just as sweet as if cut by liand, and tliat the introduction of this 

 and other machines has lessened their manual toil so that their 

 brains can have free play and their wives and children more 

 leisure for cultivation. 



It is the want of education, intelligence, enterprise and obser- 

 vation, thus hardening to the old fossil habits, that prevents the 

 farmer from making improvements upon his tools, or adapting 

 his farm and its products to the wants of the community and 

 his own progress. It took a President of the United States to 

 invent the side-hill plough, and Jefferson was almost as proud 

 of that as of the " Immortal Declaration." Gen. Washington, 

 while compelled to be absent for years from his farm in the 

 service of his country, directed its operation by weekly instruc- 

 tions to his manager. John Adams had a co-laborer in his 

 almost unexampled wife, who by her brains ran the machine 

 and supported herself and family from the farm, whilst her 

 husband was holding up the pillars of his country ; and Daniel 

 Webster's (the farmer of Marshfield) instructions to John 

 Taylor are too well known to be more than alluded to. Those 

 instructions contain a mine of practical knowledge, which if 

 followed would make all farming profitable. 



It is by following the example of these great men and their 

 successors, in bringing thoughts and brains to our avocation, 

 that we can bring it up to the position it should maintain. I 

 will not insult a Berkshire farmer by doubting that he takes 

 and reads some newspaper devoted to his calling ; that he at- 

 tends his farmers' clubs, and listens to all suggestions as to the 

 best mode of improving his practice ; that he is theoretically 

 acquainted with the advantages of cutting his grass early, and 

 thus being able to fatten his stock without grain ; of raising 

 corn fodder to eke out his pastures, and avoid the necessity 

 of feeding his meadows too closely or at all ; of soiling his stock 

 when his hay crop is likely to be short or his pastures not com- 

 petent to carry his stock; of draining his land, and thus has- 

 tening the spring and lengthening the fall, and increasing his 

 crops ; of growing roots for winter dairying and promotion of 

 the health of his animals ; of the great economy in the use of 

 the most approved implements adapted to his calling ; of the 

 importance of selecting good cattle for all purposes ; of keeping 



