bald statements of awards, are of but little interest or value to 

 those who are concerned in agricultural progress. These re- 

 ports should give practical character and value to the " Trans- 

 actions of the Essex Agricultural Society." 



In farming, as much' as in other pursuits, there is need of 

 the changes and improvements which the changing times re- 

 quire. The farmer who keeps closely to the old paths nn^ 

 clings to the traditions and practices of his fathers, may not in- 

 cur much risk of great immediate loss, but can be assured of 

 diminishing profits from year to year, especially from the ex- 

 haustion of the soil and the increased cost of manual labor. — 

 To secure the conditions of success in all departments of pro- 

 ductive labor there is a steadily increasing demand for skill, 

 and a close calculation of expenses on the part of those who 

 are carrying them forward, and to this rule, farming is by no 

 means an exception. How to secure a sufficient supply of fer- 

 tilizing material to replenish wasted land, and how to econo- 

 mize and make more efficient the labor of man, are problems 

 with many farmers, of difficult solution. As to the mode and 

 the means by which the needed advancement in Agriculture is 

 to be made, we must generally rely upon that experience 

 which is every where the best teacher ; the farmer however 

 cannot afford to wait upon the instructions of his own expe- 

 rience in all things — life is too short for that, and the expense 

 of schooling would often be too great. In taking the experi- 

 ence of others as a guide, that is mainly to be consulted which 

 has been gained under conditions of soil and climate like our 

 own, and where the cost of labor is nearly the same. It mav 

 be interesting to read of great crops raised a thousand miles 

 away upon those fertile, virgin lands, where the deepest plough* 

 ing don't turn up the yellow dirt, which we find at so shallow 

 a depth > or of how cheaply the necessary labor can be obtain'^ 

 ed where the rat^ of wages approximates the old standard of 

 a penny a day j but such facts do not instruct us ; we wish to 

 know how we may restore to our soil, never extraordinarily 

 fertile, but now much impoverished, the strength it has lost ; 



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