108 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



evidently too great to encourage farmers to undertake the 

 draining of wet lands l>y means of tiles. 



The elfects of draining this land are seen in the dryness of 

 the soil, which enables the ploughing and planting to be done so 

 early in the season, that the crops have time to mature. Tlie 

 removal of the water from the soil lessens the amount of manure 

 necessary to produce good crops. About three-fourths of an 

 acre, in a slight depression, near the top of the hill, which was 

 a mud-hole in spring, is now a most fertile spot, covered with 

 young fruit trees, and yielding abundant crops of roots. The 

 first year the crop was light, owing to late planting. The 

 second year carrots were planted, and yielded at the rate of five 

 liundred bushels to the acre. The third year the crop was 

 again carrots, increasing to the amount of six liundred and 

 fifty bushels to the acre. The land was fairly manured each 

 year. The remainder of the two acres is occupied by an apple 

 orchard, which has been greatly improved as to the growth of 

 the trees, and in the quality and quantity of the fruit. 



There is another branch of farming in which I think I 

 observe considerable progress throughout the county : I refer 

 to sheep-husbandry. I do not recollect a single instance of a 

 farmer who did not admit that it was profitable to keep sheep ; 

 but the difficulty of protecting them against dogs discourages 

 most from undertaking the business. It is to be hoj^ed, how- 

 ever, that as sheep increase, dogs will decrease in number's. 1 

 cannot but think that our farming could not be improved by 

 any one thing so much as by the placing of a flock of sheep on 

 every farm. Almost every farmer has an abundance of almost 

 exhausted pasture land, on which so large an animal as a cow 

 cannot get a living ; but a sheep will thrive where a cow would 

 starve. In case pasture is wanting, sheep may be turned into 

 the woods in summer ; and if they are healthy, and in good 

 stock order when they are turned out late in the spring, they 

 may be expected to be fit for the butcher in the fall. Any 

 farmer may keep sheep through the winter without having it 

 cost him more than one dollar per head. Inferior hay and flat 

 turnips may constitute a large proportion of their food. They 

 would be a great advantage to the fiirm by destroying the 

 bushes and briars in the rough pastures, and by enriching the 

 soil with their manure. Fields, also, might be very cheaply 



