470 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



BRITISH AND AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



From an Address before the Hampden Society. 



BY PROF. J. A. NASH. 



To be particular, and to make the subject as practical as 

 possible, I will refer you to some practices of British agricul- 

 ture which are to be avoided by us because wrong in them- 

 selves ; to others which, although they may be right in that 

 soil and climate, are to be avoided because they would be 

 wrong in ours ; and to others still which are right under all 

 circumstances, and so should be carefully copied into our hus- 

 bandry. In speaking on these topics I may as well pursue the 

 order of Nature. The farmer begins with his soils and ma- 

 nures ; he proceeds with his crops ; and he ends with his beef, 

 pork, butter, cheese, and other marketable products. I will 

 pursue a like order with the few topics on which the remaining 

 time will permit me to speak. 



With regard to soils, — their neat, cleanly cultivation, and 

 their appropriation to this or that rotation of crops, as they 

 are found by experience to be better adapted to one or anoth- 

 er, — the farmers of Great Britain are, as might well be expect- 

 ed, in advance of us. There it is pretty generally understood, 

 not only for what course of cropping each district, but every 

 farm in each district, is best suited. Some lands, for instance, 

 have come, by accumulated experience, to be regarded as more 

 profitable for perpetual pasturage than for any thing else. Of 

 these some arc devoted almost exclusively to the fattening of 

 beef, others to dairy purposes, and others to sheep culture. It 

 is not that these lands are unfit for the plough. Some of them, 

 many even, very large tracts, are the most beautiful lands 1 have 

 ever seen. They would very soon feel the plough but for the 

 settled conviction that such is their aptitude for producing the 

 natural grasses that they arc worth more for that than for any 



