23 



food for cattle. When he spoke of the quantity of tons, 

 he meant tons of dried hay. After this crop was off, 

 sheep were to be put on it, to have lambs at Christ- 

 mas, so as to come into market in March, a time of 

 year when they command a high price. Upon tak- 

 ing off the sheep in March, the land would be water- 

 ed, the process of watering lasting two or three days, 

 or perhaps eight or ten days, according to circum- 

 stances, and repeated after the taking off of each 

 successive crop. Although this water has no doubt 

 considerable sediment in it, yet the general fact 

 shows how important water is to the growth of plants, 

 and how far even it may supply the place of other 

 sources of sustenance. Now, we in Massachusetts, 

 have a more uneven surface, more values with slo- 

 ping sides, by many times more streams, and such a 

 climate that our farms suffer much oftener from 

 drought than farms in England. May we not learn 

 something useful, therefore, from the examples of ir- 

 rigation in that country.* 



With respect to implements of husbandry, Mr. 

 Webster was of opinion that the English, on the 

 whole, had no advantage over us. Their wagons 

 and carts were no better, their ploughs he thought, 

 were not better any where, and in some counties far 

 inferior, because unnecessarily heavy. The sub-soil 

 plough, for which we have little use, was esteemed a 

 useful invention, and the mole plough, which he had 

 seen in operation, and the use of which was to make 

 an under-ground drain, without disturbing the sur- 



# *See Appendix,— Note E. 



