6 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



agriculture which every man can comprehend, and which all 

 men delight to study. He is every day teaching by example, 

 and is illustrating, moreover, that view which I have taken 

 of an agricultural society as one of the best of agricultural 

 schools. 



That this kind of teaching is not in vain, let us look over 

 this little section of the country which contains the farming 

 interest represented by this society. Here in Essex county, we 

 have every kind of industry to tempt us away from agriculture ; 

 and yet in this county, inclosing four large cities, flourishing 

 towns, busy villages, with every inducement to neglect the soil, 

 our people have taken a high stand as intelligent and enterprising 

 farmers. In the cultivation of root crops and vegetables, we 

 have not been surpassed, as the premiums awarded at the 

 last horticultural exhibition in Boston, will testify. The largest 

 recorded amount of carrots upon an acre were raised in this 

 very town where I am now speaking. Nowhere has the onion 

 been cultivated with more skill and profit, than on these fields 

 directly about us. The application of sea manure of all descrip- 

 tions to the soil, has been carried to the highest perfection 

 along our coast. Some of the best experiments in improving 

 cattle and sheep have been made upon our farms. In horti- 

 culture and pomology, the names of Cabot, and Manning and 

 Ives, are quoted as authority. Whoever has heard of the 

 liberal and energetic President of our Society, knows that at 

 Lynmere there is a growth of forest trees planted by his hand, 

 which is almost unequalled as " a thing of beauty," and as a 

 triumph of skill over a hard and sterile soil. I can show you, 

 on the shore of Beverly, the best arranged farm buildings that 

 can be found perhaps in New England, taking them together ; 

 and you will find there as choice a collection of cows as can 

 be seen anywhere, and I think decidedly the finest SufFolks 

 and flock of Dorkings that can be found this side of the royal 

 farm at Windsor, from whence they came. Not far from us, 

 overlooking our very sliow ground is a green-house and grapery, 

 which Mr. Paxton might envy, even among the costly edifices 

 of his lordly master at Chatsworth. Our experiments in under- 

 draining have become so extensive, that a manufactory of tiles 

 has been established in the county. At a trial of mowing 

 machines during the past summer, on my farm, six different 



