28 MR. proctor's address. 



past from 30,000 to 60,000 bushels in a year have been 

 raised in the single town ofDanvers. The average val- 

 ue of the crop when brought to the market is fifty cents 

 per bushel, or $150 per acre. In what way can so fair 

 a profit be realized from the land ? Take into view al- 

 so the condition in which this crop leaves the land for 

 other crops, actually benefitted, and it will be found one 

 of the most advantageous crops that can be put upon the 

 land. How ha{)pens it that these cultivators are thus 

 successful. Is it not because they are careful in the 

 preparation of their grounds, and in the selection and 

 application of appropriate manures in a proper manner? 

 Within my own remembrance, those same cultivators 

 scarcely knew how to raise a bushel of onions, and 

 thought their soil would not produce them. Would not 

 the same kind of care find its reward in the cultivation 

 of other crops ? Indian corn for example, this most lux- 

 urious and valuable Yankee crop, thirty years since was 

 estimated at an average of thirty bushels to the acre. 

 Will our farmers be content with such an estimate, when 

 double the quantity can readily he obtained by the same 

 labor, with the application of proper skill and manure in 

 the preparation and cultivation of the land ? The lesson 

 to be drawn from these facts and considerations, is, cul- 

 tivate so much land as can be well done arid no more ; and 

 leave no pari of the process of cultivation slightly performed. 

 Neglect of this salutar}' rule is unquestionably the 

 common error of our farmers. In the first place, they 

 spend their means in procuring additional acres, thereby 

 depriving themselves of the power of profitably cultivat- 

 ing the {qw they had. This disposition to engross many 

 acres, and to own, as is the desire of some, all that join 

 them, is not only a private bu't a public evil. It checks 

 enterprise and prevents the natural increase of popula- 

 tion. Where lands are thus possessed, what chance is 

 there for the enterprising young man to become a pro- 

 prietor 1 Can you not bring to recollection hundreds of 

 acres that have thus for years, been excluded as it were 

 from all useful purposes ? Within my own observation, 

 I have known farms that remained for years in the hands 



