122 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



chemical action with the soil itself as would liberate an 

 increased supply of plant food. 



All the scientific recommendations were carried out, but 

 the crop was unsuccessful, or almost a failure. 



After considering the character of the soil, and reviewing 

 the debit and credit sheets of my account book in regard to 

 the crop, it was decided to abandon all further general culti- 

 vation of that field. I therefore tried to start some srass 

 there, and have now on part of it a poor pasture, and on the 

 balance a good growth of a mixture of forest trees. If the 

 field were larger, I think it might be improved by pasturing 

 sheep there, provided they should be fed with rich food to 

 increase the value of their manure. 



How to enable the owners to improve their poorer lands 

 is an important matter to the State, if land is being held at 

 a loss, and is not of sufficiently good quality to yield profita- 

 ble returns. 



There seems to be much land in Massachusetts to-day 

 which would be more profitable if planted judiciously to 

 trees, or otherwise treated than at present. 



The efibrt that is being made to improve much of our up- 

 land by increasing sheep husbandry deserves all the encour- 

 agement that it can receive. The value of well-fed sheep 

 as a means of renovating land is great, and those who are 

 agitating this subject should receive all possible aid. 



In improving the lower lands that require drainage, and 

 to be cleared of woody and rough growth, we find the re- 

 claimed land of so high a quality as to invite either cultivated 

 crops or heavy grass land, depending largely upon nearness 

 ^o market. 



It is on such land that crops can be made to thrive after 

 they have been judiciously treated by drainage and fertiliza- 

 tion ; and there, where they have useful amounts of moisture 

 even in seasons of drought, that chemical fertilisers can be 

 used with almost unerring efiects ; and where the hard work 

 of the farmer can be expended with as sure a promise of 

 good returns at times of harvest as anywhere. 



There are farms to-day where the main-stay is the lower 

 land, which bears three tons or more of hay to the acre, 

 uhile the old uplands, that father and grandfather have made 



