490 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



out reference to an improved cultivation, which is to follow the 

 dissemination of scientific and practical knowledge among 

 farmers. The view taken contemplates only that amount of 

 skill which the farmers of Massachusetts are known to possess ; 

 and it is my desire further to show that its proper exercise 

 will place them above the evil of low profits. 



In farming, three things are necessary — skill, labor, and im- 

 plements. Proceeding upon the basis that the skill of our 

 farmers is sufficient for the present inquiry, I have next to say, 

 that there is as much labor employed upon the farms of Mas- 

 sachusetts as there ought to be, when we consider the claims 

 of other branches of industry. The great practical question 

 is, how to economize it so as to produce the best results. The 

 skilful farmer makes a judicious selection of his implements 

 and keeps them in good order. He can no more afford to 

 work with poor tools than the manufacturer can afford to use 

 worn or antiquated machinery. 



Among the agencies, if not among the implements, employed 

 in agriculture in this region, we are certainly to reckon ma- 

 nures. They are to the farm what water or steam is to the 

 mill. As the want of these, or their excessive cost, ruins the 

 manufacturer, so the want of manure, or its great cost, hurries 

 the farmer to the same end. The advance made in agricul- 

 tural knowledge in the last five years has changed public 

 sentiment on this point ; yet it is feared that the remedy has 

 been found in the purchase of expensive manures from abroad 

 rather than in the prudent husbandry of the resources we have 

 at home. And the conclusion of this address will be devoted 

 to ant-inquiry into the amount of waste in this respect in Mas- 

 sachusetts. If it is profitable farming to purchase guano, phos- 

 phate, and animal manures from abroad, there is certainly no 

 excuse for neglecting the means which every farmer can com- 

 mand at a small expense, ne who neglects his harvest is hard- 

 ly distinguished from the criminal ; yet it is common to neglect 

 the preparation on which the harvest depends. A waste of 

 the manure is a waste of the elements, and renders it impossi- 

 ble for us to add to our crops or to improve our land. The 

 first thing to be done, then, is to economize the manure we 

 have at home, and there may then be hope of general and per- 



