102 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



has had nothing expended upon it for ten years and more, that 

 produces on the average a ton and a lialf of good hay to the 

 acre and bids fair to do it for years to come. 



But what especially attracted the attention of the committee 

 on Mr. Bradley's farm was another tract of twelve acres, the 

 larger part of it meadow, which one year ago was covered with 

 a thick growth of wood. This was cut off last winter and 

 produced about three hundred and fifty cords. Immense 

 ditches were then opened through and around the meadow part 

 of the lot, for the twofold purpose of draining the land and 

 furnishing material for compost. In the spring a large gang of 

 men were put upon it with axes, spades and bog hoes, and the 

 whole surface turned up to a sufficient depth for cultivation. 

 At the time it was seen by members of the committee, the entire 

 twelve acres had not only been dug over and fitted for the seed, 

 but every stump and root which was large enough to obstruct 

 its easy cultivation, had been taken out from the meadow 

 portion of it, and were nowhere to be seen. They had been 

 converted to ashes and those ashes had been spread over and 

 were hastening the decomposition of a peaty soil, deep enough 

 to supply self-fertilizing material for a half dozen generations, 

 in its gradual decay. An instance of improvement so extensive, 

 so thorough, completed in so short a time and in such a manner 

 — for it was all done by hand labor, is without its parallel in the 

 county. 



There is a single topic on which the committee desire to make 

 a suggestion. We are often reminded in the speech and in the 

 journal agricultural, tliat our great mistake is in cultivating too 

 much land ; that it will be for our profit to till less and manure 

 better. To do only so much as we can do well, is a good maxim 

 and beyond all cavil. We should never keep more stock than 

 we can feed well, iiave no larger breadth in hoed crops than we 

 can feed well, and never attempt to cultivate any more land 

 than we can manure well. In the judgment of some of the 

 committee at least, quality is thought to be of as much impor- 

 tance as quantity, in farming calculations. We cannot afford 

 to cultivate poor land. If it is necessary to be cautious about 

 cultivating too much, it is quite as necessary that a sound, cal- 

 culating, business-like judgment should be exercised in choosing 

 those portions of the farm for the application of labor and 



