9 



serve its purpose — and this surrounded by a well-kept lawn, will 

 do much to make the ambitious boy and girl contented with the 

 country and the farm. Especially, if with these, aid in the house- 

 hold be as freely furnished to the wife and mother as to the 

 farmer himself on the meadows and in the fields. 



And these things which I now suggest as worthy of your atten- 

 tion, are not in the line of useless expenditure and extravagance, 

 but are strictly in the line of that economy and thrift which per- 

 tain to the highest interests of the home and of the State. 



If there be any home that should be attractive in its exterior 

 appointments — if there be any lawn which is broad and green, 

 and smoothly mown, and beautifully adorned with shrubs and 

 flowers — that home and that lawn should be in the country and 

 on the farm, where there is ample space, and ample time to se- 

 cure these things, even without withholding labor from the plow- 

 ing, the sowing, or the reaping. And I am sure that no invest- 

 ment of time and labor in the work of the farm would, in the end, 

 yield a more satisfactory return than this investment which I have 

 now suggested. 



Another thing worthy of still more attention than it now re- 

 ceives, is the Hay Crop. Farmers, as a general thing, mow too 

 much ground and as a whole they cut too little hay. 



The Hay Crop is the second great crop of our country, and 

 might easily be the first. But its great importance is not even 

 now fully appreciated, as the means for its increase are compar- 

 atively little used. 



It appears that the hay-fields of Massachusetts to-day yield 

 something less than a ton to the acre. Now within five years this 

 yield should be fully doubled, thus greatly adding to the income 

 of the farmers and the wealth of the State. And the farmer has 

 the means at his own command to secure the great result. He 

 needs but to drain his swamps and his bogs, and raise Clover and 

 Timothy where he now grows alders and bullrushes. He needs 

 but save with strictest economy all the fertilizers from the house 

 and from the barn ; to bring to his yards at the close of each day 

 all his cattle from the pastures and the fields; to keep the floors 

 of his stalls well supplied with loam, and his yards with muck 



