MR. Huntington's address. 15 



red to, producing between two and three tons to the 

 acre of the best English grasses. 



This subject cannot be pressed too strongly on 

 the attention of our Essex farmers. These sunken, 

 sterile, and unsightly meadows contain mines of 

 wealth, and require only the hand of the judicious 

 cultivator to work out the precious metals, in all 

 sufficient and reasonable abundance. I say, again, 

 let every farmer, who is blessed with this species of 

 soil, try the experiment for himself. He may do it 

 on a more limited scale, if he please. If he is un- 

 willing to grapple with one or two acres, let him try 

 one or two rods ; and if he should not be perfectly 

 satisfied with the experiment after a fair trial of two 

 or three years, as one of the trustees of the society, 

 I should not be unwilling to assume the whole ex- 

 pense of all the experiments that might be made, 

 and to become, with my colleagues, personally re- 

 sponsible for such an engagement. I have entire 

 confidence in the feasibility and profitableness of this 

 mode of culture ; and I hope I may live to see the 

 day, when these detached prairies shall become the 

 gardens of Essex, rejoicing the heart and eye of the 

 passing traveller, and returning their golden harvests 

 into the barns and granaries of the husbandman. 



Before quitting this topic, I cannot forbear relating 

 an anecdote, which will illustrate the general views 

 here presented. Within the last year, an aged far- 

 mer, who has made himself rich by this mode of cul- 

 tivation, adopted extensively, many years ago, was 

 called as a witness before a sheriff's jury, to estimate 

 the value of a neighbor's land, which had been taken 

 for a highway. The land was a narrow strip of three 

 rods in width, running partly over upland tillage of 

 field, and partly over a meadow, producing coarse and 

 sour grass. Several witnesses were called in behalf 

 of the petitioner for damages to appraise these differ- 

 ent soils, and all of them, except the old farmer, 

 estimated the upland considerably higher than the 

 meadow. When he was called, he reversed the es- 



