91 



hausting crop, as is universally admitted ; and hay that is marketed 

 deprives the farm of manure. My belief is, that the extended cul- 

 tivation of grain crops, such as Indian corn, barley, or pease, and of 

 vegetable crops, such as ruta baga, potatoes, carrots and beets, to 

 be consumed on the place, or, if sold, sold only in the form of grain, 

 or pork, or mutton, or dairy produce, butter in particular, would be 

 doubly profitable ; and render our agriculture an improving, rather 

 than, as it often is under the hay-selling system, an exhausting opera- 

 tion. The introduction of the plan of sowing clover with all grains, 

 to be ploughed in as a green dressing, and other green crops, demands 

 attention. The composting of manures, the application of clay marls, 

 which it is believed may be found abundantly in the county, and the 

 uses of lime, deserve immediate and exact inquiry and experiment on 

 the part of the Essex farmers.* The draining of their fresh meadows, 

 and the preparation of them for English grasses, and the dykeing 

 and draining of their salt marshes, would add immensely to the pro- 

 ductive wealth of the county. 



AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 



Two literary institutions, one at Beverly, and one at Byfield, are 

 designed in some measure to connect agricultural or mechanical labor 

 with literary education and improvement. They are in this matter 

 as yet in embryo. The latter has ample means in a valuable land- 

 ed estate contiguous to the school. The former has purchased 

 a valuable estate, and design to apply to the government of the state 

 for aid. Some capital is found necessary in the outset ; but I have 

 a strong persuasion, that the introduction of the cultivation of silk in 

 such seminaries where favorably situated, without materially interfer- 

 ing with the literary improvement of the pupils, may do much, under 

 skilful management, towards defraying all the necessary expenses of 

 the establishment. The education which is the fruit of our own 

 honest industry is of vastly more value to the character and self- 

 respect of its favored subject, than that, which is the gift either of 

 public or private charity. 



* Appendix L. 



