AGRICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



AGRICULTURE AN ART. 



From an Address before the Essex Agricultural Society. 



BY JOnX L. UUSSELL. 



The cultivation of the earth is of three kinds — the tradi 

 tional, the artistic, and the scientific. Tlie first employs all the 

 most approved methods which have been known from the earliest 

 days of farming in a country, and carries with it errors and 

 prejudices. Myths and fables do not belong exclusively to 

 ancient religions, but occur equally in old fashioned customs. 

 There is the mythical and fabulous in agriculture as well as in 

 antiquity, properly so called. In certain parts of every country 

 the old fashioned customs still are to be found, and the farmer's 

 occupation comes in largely for its share. The plough, the 

 hoe, the scythe, the kinds of grain sown, the mode of manuring 

 the land, the incorrect inferences about the modes of working 

 it, the average crops from year to year, all exhibit the myths of 

 olden customs. The internal arrangement of the household, 

 the style of the dairy rooms, the surroundings of the dwelling, 

 the aspect of things about the farm, mark the reign of an age 

 which ought to have passed away. Even the private habits of 

 some farmers, — their social and civil relations, show how little 

 agricultural fairs and exhibitions have done for them. Converse 

 with such men and women, and you will find them full of wise 

 saws and signs, and superstitions ; but take no note of the " signs 

 of the times " in which they live. TIio traditional cultivation of 

 the earth leaves the farm less valuable from generation to gen- 

 eration, until at last emigration to more fertile and virgin soils 

 is the final resort. 

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