FARMS. 139 



like men, and in almost every instance, if I wanted one to per- 

 form any labor at any hour of the day or the night, I had only to 

 make the request. Or, if I wished at any time to accomplish 

 an extra amount of labor, for a day's work, I have seldom 

 failed to do it. 



Tlie average wages I have paid for five years past, has been 

 $15.50 per month, and all whom I have hired have been ready 

 to commence work at sunrise and to continue it till sundown, 

 or later, if necessary. 



Dorchester, November 10, 1858. 



PLYMOUTH. 



From the Supervisor's Report. 



We would see every freeholder making improvements on the 

 homestead. A few days' work annually in removing stones and 

 brush, in transplanting trees and fences, will add much to the 

 beauty and pleasantness of home. The children catch the 

 inspiration, and each one is eager to do something to forward 

 the enterprise. Their taste is improved, their energy quick- 

 ened, and they become more social, more active for study and 

 for labor, more attached to home. 



It becomes us to inquire, whether as an agricultural commu- 

 nity we are not falling behind the rest of the world by our 

 neglect of improvement when we ought to be in the advance. 

 Do we not think too much of the bushels of grain which we can 

 raise the present year, and not aim enough at the general 

 improvement of the farm ? Such improvement as shall render 

 home attractive and pleasant to our young men, and save them 

 from the inclination to leave the paternal roof for those pursuits 

 which insure failure and disappointment to so many. 



Our farms are capable of both productive and ornamental 

 improvement. Would it not then be advisable for the agricul- 

 tural society to give more encouragement to farm improvement, 

 by offering a higher premium for the best conducted farm, — for 

 converting swamp lands into English meadow, — and old worn- 

 out hills and fields into forests ? The entries made for such 

 improvements for the last two or three years have been very few. 



