ing agricultural operations, on the part of many, that is 

 without a parallel in any civilized land. Take a drive, 

 in almost any direction, in almost any neighborhood, and 

 behold the numerous orchards festooned with caterpil- 

 lars' Avebs, scorched by canker-w^orms, and dying out 

 from the borers ; and see the fields covered with the ox- 

 eye daisy (white weed), the golden rod, and broad 

 clumps of savin (juniper), wdiile the road-sides are dec- 

 orated with Canada thistles, and rendered dangerous 

 by wild parsnips, poisonous sumachs and dog-wood, or 

 disgusting with stagnant pools, and with vermin that 

 seek refuge from the dying orchards in the superior 

 fertility of the highway. 



Why do we behold such things ? They are the re- 

 sults of attempting too much. The man who tries to 

 work more land than he can properly work, and to keep 

 more animals than he ought to keep, can afford no 

 thought, nor time, nor expense, for defending himself 

 from the evils to which we have referred. Clean farm- 

 ing, and a due attention to his road-sides, are as imprac- 

 ticable for him as thorough farming. 



Now the public has no right to prevent him from im- 

 poverishing himself by his mode of management ; but it 

 has a right to demand that he shall not make his farm 

 a nuisance to his neighbors — and a nuisance it is if he 

 converts it into a seed-bed and nursery for these plants 

 and insect-pests, so that his neighbors are constantly 

 supplied with fresh accessories, no matter how much 

 pains they take to keep their own plantations clear and 

 clean. 



I believe it is admitted that the destruction of these 

 evil plants and insects is possible in any given instance. 

 It follows, therefore, that under certain conditions thev 



