MK. king's address. 15 



of compost manure to the acre, 1 have obtained two crops of 

 grain and stocked the land down to grass."* 



The great object of the farmer is to obtain llie most valuable 

 products, with the least possible labor, and at the same time to 

 keep his farm in a state of progressive improvement ; by this 

 method large crops have been obtained with a small expense of 

 labor and manure — but some of little faith may object that it is 

 the result of a single experiment, that there may have been 

 something peculiar in the soil or the seasons, that with others it 

 would have been a complete failure, and that most likely the 

 land soon became exhausted. But Mr. Phinney has practised 

 and continues to practise the same kind of husbandry with the 

 same success and with increasing confidence. The field on 

 which he made the experiment which he has so clearly ami 

 satisfactorily detailed, has remained in grass till the present sea- 

 son, and has continued to yield two tons of good hay to the 

 acre, without any top dressing. Other farmers have followed 

 the same method on a great diversity of soils, and although a 

 plain field and a loamy soil may be best adapted to the purpose, 

 there are none except very wet or very rough and rocky 

 grounds which cannot be greatly improved by it. There is 

 nothing unreasonable or unphilosophical in this method, and suc- 

 cess would seem to follow it as naturally as effect follows cause. 

 I know that there are many farmers who believe that the good 

 old ivay is the best way, but let the most incredulous of these 

 visit the farm of Mr. Phinney, which but fifteen years ago pro- 

 duced but nine tons of hay and which now produces seventy ; 

 let him go into those well mellowed fields and see the corn 

 waving in its beauty and ripening into a golden harvest, yielding 

 nearly one hundred bushels to the acre, and potatoes in equal 

 abundance ; let him witness all the improvements of that well 

 managed and thoroughly cultivated farm, (which in natural ad- 

 vantages, perhaps, does not exceed his own,) and that sceptical 



* William Clark, juii., of Northampton, and Daniel Putnam, of Dan- 

 vers, liave adoitted similar methods of husbandry, and have been very 

 successful. 



