G5 



PPtIZE ESSAY 



BY R. W. LIVERMORE. 



DefiimbiC Improveiiioils in. the A<iriciilttirc of Hmnpi^hire County. 



An Atlieuiaii, being asked concerniujy the necessaiy requisites to 

 successful oratory, replied : In the first place, action ; in the 

 second place, action ; in the third place, action ; " and if one was 

 now asked the same question applied to agricnltui'e, he might as 

 strongly reply, " Fertility." 



The farmer who is determined to make a manifest success of his 

 life and calling, to have agriculture the better for his having 

 engaged in it, asks first of all : " If my land is not at its maximum 

 fertihty, how shall I put and l-eei? it there." He places this question 

 and its solution above ease, above mere utility, above display or 

 accumulated property. That our soil has not been thus consulted, 

 our mpoverished fields and diminished retvu^ns plainly declare. 

 With each generation the smart young man, or men, of the family, 

 liaving well skimmed the old homestead, move westward or city- 

 ward, leaving the worn-out land to be tilled by worn-out men, or 

 by the nerveless, inefficient, " never-get-out-of-the-rut " portion 

 of every community. Exceptions to this, happily, are growing less 

 and less rare, and we trust as agriculture feels the march of intellect, 

 as ctdture and science elevate and ennoble her walks, our natire 

 young men will stay by the old farms, and we shall see them culti- 

 vated, not for the results of five years or twenty, but for a hfe time, 

 to be handed down to children and to children's children. This 

 cultivation from father to son has largely contributed toward placing 

 England's agriculture in the van, and its interests in our country 

 demand its repetition in our older States. No more fitting State 

 t'.ould be found to inaugurate this system than Massachusetts — 

 always first in every good work : — No more fitting county of that 



