468 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



of the farmer who attempts a grain crop on a field that has 

 lost its potash or its phosphoric acid. The folly, in either case, 

 is transparent. You have the form and semblance of strength 

 in the pine plough beam, but no toughness or durability. You 

 have the stalks and the heads of the wheat or the rye, but no 

 grain. Both are shams, because bunglers have made them. In 

 the case of the grain crop the blame is thrown upon Nature, 

 and it is declared that the wheat blasted. The poor man does 

 not suspect himself of a vain endeavor to rival the Almighty — 

 to make something out of nothing; and yet that is practically 

 the policy of the farmer who would grow a crop without know- 

 ing whether the elements of that crop are in his soil. 



There is a direct pecuniary benefit to society in scientific 

 agriculture. It would bring cheaper food, and of much better 

 quality, to every man's door. In the absence of famine, we 

 forget that famine would now exist were it not for the improve- 

 ment already effected by the application of science to agricul- 

 ture. It is this alone which has enabled England to double her 

 population within a century. It is this alone which enables us 

 to keep so much of our population upon the sea board, and 

 which can keep it against the strong competition of the new 

 lands of the West. 



What science has done for British agriculture it can do for 

 ours. There is no magic in great crops, and no miracles 

 wrought in God's rain and sunshine. " He sendeth his rain 

 upon the just and upon the unjust." The man who knows how 

 to make his acres produce maximum crops will get them, and 

 he only. Providence will help those who learn how to help 

 themselves. There is a wide difference between good and bad 

 husbandry, visible to all who look at it. There is a still great- 

 er difference between that which now prevails and that which 

 is attainable by all. 



It is speaking far within bounds to say that the present agri- 

 cultural population of Hampshire County is capable of produ- 

 cing from the same farms now cultivated twice the amount of 

 meat and breadstuff's now grown here. Many a farm, under 

 improved husbandry, has increased its productions three and 

 fourfold. But suppose the products of this county arc only 

 doubled by this process. The result is a gain to every mem- 



