68 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



ing up fertility from depths too deep for the rut of the former 

 proprietor to penetrate, though he had skimmed it over all his 

 days ; a little money and a little taste applied to the buildings 

 and their surroundings give them an air of home comfort. 



This is not a mere fancy sketch. A neighbor of ours, Patrick 

 Hall, (he will excuse us for calling his name, for we do it in 

 honor and as a stimulus for his brother Michael and cousin 

 Jonathan to go and do likewise,) has furnished the original 

 from which the sketch is drawn. Some eight or ten years 

 since Patrick purchased for a song a tract of land, cold as 

 water could make it, and covered so thickly with hard-hacks 

 that no other vegetation was to be seen. This he has drained, 

 subdued and enriched, and now it produces premium crops of 

 potatoes, grass and grain. A substantial, neat white house 

 crowns an eminence of the farm, and is surrounded by that 

 most beautiful and healthful of our forest trees, the white 

 pine. A row of pines also borders the side of the road and 

 the northern limit of the plantation, furnishing a shelter from 

 the cold north winds and rendering the air fragrant with bal- 

 samic odors. The barn has been enlarged from time to time 

 to accommodate the increased products, and is now a spacious 

 structure, furnished with a cellar and other modern improve- 

 ments. The whole establishment has an air of thrift and taste 

 which must attract the attention of the most casual passer-by. 

 I have watched its growth with great pleasure, and no farm 

 gives me greater satisfaction, unless I except my own, on which 

 a man may be pardoned for looking with paternal partiality. If 

 some citizen with an abundance of capital had made these im- 

 provements, there would be little occasion for extra credit ; but 

 Patrick had only a few hundred dollars to begin his farming 

 with, which he had saved from his hard earnings in a quarry. 

 The farm is the creation of his own skilful industry. What a 

 man has done man may do. 



This leads me to say that if we wish to see our farms im- 

 proved, the waste places cultivated, the crops doubled and even 

 quadrupled, and our rural homes made more comfortable and 

 attractive, the farmer must be educated for his calling. It has 

 been one grand mistake to suppose that if a boy was bright he 

 must be sent to college and be trained for the pulpit, the bar, 

 the platform or the hospital, while the dull lads are kept at 



