108 • FARMS. 



LETTER OF DAVID CHOATE. 

 To J. W. PiiocTOR, Esq., 



Dear Sir : — Having been unfortunately, (for myself) denied the 

 pleasure of visiting the farm of Col. Newell, at West Newbury, and 

 of Mr. Ware, at Marblchead, with the committee, I accepted your 

 invitation to visit a few of those in this vicinity, as my engagements 

 have permitted. I believe that to yourself belongs the honor of 

 having originated the plan of visiting farms known to be well man- 

 aged, but not offered for premium through the modesty or other 

 amiable virtue of the owner. There are certainly but few men in 

 our country, who like Mr. Mechi, of Tiptree, in England, would 

 wish to " invite inspection in order, by the force of example, to 

 give an impulse to improved cultivation." It will be long, no 

 doubt, before 300 to 350 gentlemen farmers and statesmen, from 

 remote parts of the country, will be drawn together among us, to 

 see the crops and the mode of management upon any farm, as was 

 the case a few months ago at the above mentioned place. Not that 

 I think the English farmer has all the advantage on his side. It is 

 said he makes some failures, — goes to work expensively sometimes, 

 :and it seems to be intimated that, with all the good he has done, his 

 balance-sheet does not always exhibit the most abundant income. 

 Neither, since calling on some of our farmers, am I willing to 

 admit that Mr. Mechi is the only man who can take his visitors, 

 few or many, from field to field, " explaining everything upon 

 which information is desired " — not the only one who can, while 

 making the round of the farm, " deliver a succession of peripatetic 

 lectures on almost every point connected with agriculture." There 

 are good humor and volubility among American farmers, you may 

 depend, as well as over the water ; and if Mr. Mechi' s " field 

 preaching is worth travelling a long distance to listen to," so have I 

 found it in some of our own county, and that too without even so 

 much of a mixture of forth putting, as to allow them to do more 

 than merely consent to a visit, actually sought hy the committee as 

 a privilege. 



The only objection to this mode of obtaining information is one 

 that cannot, from the nature of tlie case, be avoided, viz : the want 

 of perfect accuracy in stating the amount produced or the amount 

 of manure applied. The visits of the Committee are made zvltile 



