166 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



growing late in ripening. Early maturity is quite an object in 

 this climate. Notwithstanding the cold and backward spring, 

 and the discouraging appearance of our corn even into July, 

 the crop was seldom better, through the wonderfully favorable 

 weather of this fall ; had the frost come upon us at the usual 

 time, it must have been a failure. This king of our native 

 cereals is worthy of our best attention, and cultivation. No 

 single plant has so great a breadth of climate in which it will 

 grow in some of its varieties — it being grown from forty-five 

 degrees north well down to the Equator, and east and west 

 from ocean to ocean ; none enters so largely into the consump- 

 tion of man and animal, making glad the stomachs of millions 

 of living beings. The product of this plant is enormous, 

 amounting in 1859 to nine hundred millions of bushels, an 

 amount that the human mind can hardly grasp or comprehend. 

 An over-production of tliis grain is not to be feared, since its 

 value is becoming appreciated in Europe. Let experiments 

 decide upon the best mode of producing this grain. IIow shall 

 it be managed to secure the best results ? Shall it be planted 

 in hills and hilled up, as did the Indians, or should it be worked 

 level, as a few have ventured to ? Shall the manure be turned 

 beneath the furrow, or shall it be worked in with the harrow ? 

 Shall it be used fresh and warm, or fermented and fine ? There 

 are advocates for all these ways ; let them communicate results. 

 Farmers, visit your neighbors' . farms ; there are many facts 

 lying about tliat will never reach you through the agricultural 

 journals, for their editors seldom visit the small farmers, who 

 can work out a theory of their own to a successful result, but 

 yet would shrink from committing their views to paper, and 

 thus bring them before the public. There are not many who 

 will not talk with their neighbors about the management of 

 their crops in a quiet way ; and then, again, you have the 

 evidence of your own eyes, and need not be afraid of book- 

 farming, as some yet are. Finally, gain all the information 

 you can by reading, observation, and conversation ; then by 

 persevering, energetic labor, accompanied by the use of all the 

 fertilizers within your means, you will be rewarded with an 

 abundant crop. 



Luther Butterpield, Chairman. 



