VEGETABLES. 139 



PLYMOUTH. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



Too many farmers act on the principle that nature is not to 

 be trusted, and manure too lightly. Deep and careful culture, 

 with heavy manuring, will pay better than any other system, 

 and once having been adopted, no other will be followed. 

 The reasons are obvious. The work in cultivating: is not 

 much greater when you raise sixty bushels of corn to the 

 acre, than when the yield is thirty bushels. You will remem- 

 ber the story of the man that continually -divided his estate 

 every time he gave a daughter in marriage, until he had 

 disposed of more than half a dozen, yet he still prospered, 

 and raised better crops than at first. This lesson has not 

 been lost on English farmers, when the amount invested in 

 fertilizers, machines and tools equals the value of the farm. 

 In a highly manured soil, insects injurious to vegetation can- 

 not thrive in their mischievous work, as in the unfertile land 

 of the careless cultivator. The vigorous plants, with rapidly 

 forming cells, many times push away and destroy the work of 

 insects when growing in a generous soil. If the soil is poor 

 and thin, this result is not to be expected, and is rarely seen. 

 I except the ravages of the Colorado beetle, which, if hungry, 

 might eat wood. It is a question for us to solve as to how 

 many acres of this Plymouth County soil it is desirable for 

 farmers to cultivate. I have no doubt that as a rule farmers 

 have too much land. There is too much silex in Plymouth 

 County for the best results. Clay is not only needed, but is 

 an absolute requisite to success. Harris Lewis of New York, 

 stated in an address before the Massachusetts Board of Agri- 

 culture about two years ago, that when he was destitute of ♦ 

 manure, in some cases he irrigated the fields with muddy water ; 

 i. e., he mixed soil and water together, and then applied it to 

 his land. One or two applications he considered would give 

 a good crop of grass. This statement seemed to me a 

 remarkable one when I heard it, as I thought that in Plymouth 

 County two-thirds of the soil would hardly color the water 

 when mixed. But the soil of which Mr. Harris speaks is 

 largely made up of clay, and when diluted with water, and 



