122 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



of plaster in the hill, he says the potatoes come out smoother 

 and handsomer, and will bring enough more in the market to 

 pay for tlie plaster several times over. 



His belief is that every farmer should rely mainly upon his 

 own resources for manures, and that except in extraordinary 

 cases, he should not attempt to cultivate any more land than 

 he can provide manure for from his own farm. 



Neighbor Wiseman endeavors to keep up with the times, and 

 he avails himself of every new implement, or new method of 

 cultivation, which upon careful examination commends itself 

 to his judgment. 



He has tried raising milk for the market, instead of making 

 butter. This he did principally from regard to his wife, hoping 

 to relieve her somewhat of the labor of the dairy. 



While selling his milk, he cut a large portion of his hay for 

 his milch cows, and moistened it, and added a portion of cob 

 and corn meal to the feed, night and morning. But he found 

 it on the whole less profitable than making butter. The relief 

 to his wife was less than he anticipated. The daily labor of 

 cleaning the cans was new to her, and quite as hard as the 

 straining and skimming of the milk, and the working and pack- 

 ing of the butter. As for the chvirning, she had rarely done 

 that, since they had more tlian two cows. He found he could 

 not keep as many pigs as formerly, and the manure from the 

 pig-sty was diminished. 



Occasionally his milk was not all wanted, and the butter ap- 

 paratus not being in order, the extra milk was of little value, 

 except for the hogs. After trying it three years, he returned 

 to the butter making. He now keeps twelve cows, and sends 

 the butter to market weekly. 



He concludes that this is the most profitable disposal he can 

 make of his milk, and as his wife thinks a good deal of her 

 skill as a butter maker, she says she likes it the best. She has 

 a neat, airy milk cellar, with a clean brick floor, and shelves as 

 white almost as the milk itself. It is a pleasure to see the long 

 rows of tin pans upon them, filled with milk, or to see the pans 

 on a bright day after churning, glittering in the sunshine. 



Neighbor Wiseman has crossed his cows with the Ayrshire 

 and the Devon stock, and he thinks it has resulted in a marked 

 improvement of their milking properties, though some of his 



