126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



unless they preferred to reclaim that which could most 

 quickly be made ready to yield them crops. 



Because our brave and sturdy ancestry reclaimed from 

 the woods much of the land that is still under cultivation 

 to-day, is, in itself, no reason why it may not be wiser to 

 again reclaim many of the same lands from field, pasture or 

 waste culture, and plant to trees. 



Certainly most of the land with gravelly subsoil that is 

 so sensitive to drought, and the inland tracts that are of a 

 more sandy character, and which go begging at ten dollars 

 an acre, originally were largely covered by a growth of 

 woods. And would it not seem far better if such lands 

 should be encouraged to return to woods again ? Mr. Slade 

 of Somerset told this Board several years ago what his 

 friends of Middleborough and adjoining towns had done for 

 similar lands there. They were planted with that standard 

 native tree, the glorious white pine of New England, which, 

 from its increasing scarcity, must be gradually improving 

 in value as the years roll on. 



This town is, probably, a less fortunate locality for a lec- 

 ture to be delivered which urges the reclaiming and culti- 

 vation of other land than that which is now tilled ; but the 

 value in tilling the best land you can have is so well known 

 to the citizens of Barre, that they cannot fail to commend the 

 importance of the old and true saying, that " what is worth 

 doing at all is worth doing well." 



This is -a good principle for every one to build upon, and 

 in the case in point every farmer should realize the value to 

 him of cultivating his best land. 



Do not continue to cultivate land for the sole reason that 

 fathers and grandfathers have done so before. 



If the uplands yield small crops, at once carefully con- 

 sider whether you can improve them ; or treat them differ- 

 ently, and bring the low lands into a condition for tillage. 



Here is a possibility for putting in practice the truism 

 that " in union there is strength," and for farmers' clubs or 

 combinations of individuals to carry it out, by a union of 

 interests, where the low lands are owned by several individ- 

 'uals, and the drainage can only be effected by united effort 

 of interested parties. 



