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as some of the land is, there are few cases in which, where it can be 

 ploughed at all to advantage, a pair of horses will not plough more 

 than an acre per day. The sheep husbandry has been pursued with 

 great success ; and the best breeds of fine-wooled sheep are to 

 be found here. The dairy produce of many of the farms is not sur- 

 passed by at)y accounts of other parts of our country, or of foreign 

 countries, which I have been able to obtain. It will be seen like- 

 wise from the statements of the farmers of the county themselves, 

 and those certainly among the most intelligent and practical, that 

 there is no crop well cultivated, which does not yield an ample re- 

 turn and compensation to labor. 



2. Exclusive Husbandry. Yet with all this it must be ad- 

 mitted that the agriculture of the county in extent and productiveness 

 is far below what it should be. As well as I could learn, Egremont 

 is almost the only town in the county, which raises not only its own 

 bread but has some for exportation. Vast amounts of flour, grain of 

 various kinds, pork and dairy produce are brought into the county 

 from the neighboring states of New York and Vermont. It was 

 asserted as a fact, and if so it deserves notice, that two years since 

 some families in one of the best towns in the county were without 

 bread of any kind for a time from the impossibility of obtaining it. 

 They were persons for example who worked for the large wool-far- 

 mers. They asked for money for their labor ; but money was not 

 to be had because the clipping of wool, owing to the derangements of 

 business, had not been sold. They asked to receive their pay in 

 grain ; but the wool-farmers had abandoned all cultivation for the 

 sheep husbandry. They asked for their pay in pork, but the farmers 

 who raised no grain could raise no pork. Now whether this be a 

 true history or fabulous, it illustrates clearly the error committed in 

 abandoning the production of grain. On a sheep-farm, especially, to 

 neglect all cultivation is evidently throwing away one of the great ad- 

 vantages which would accrue to an arable farmer from the abundant 

 supplies of manure, which the sheep might furnish. It may be said 

 that the manure made by the sheep is applied to the grass lands. 

 But it is clear to my mind that in this way it will produce little profit 

 compared with what would come from using il in a proper rotation 

 of cultivated crops. The same mistake is in some cases made by 



