13D 



agemerit, addressed to the Massachusetts j\giicu]tural Society, by 

 those who have entered the hsts in the competition for the premiums 

 on farms the present year, every applicant, with hardly an exception, 

 seems to plume himself upon the small amount of labor with which 

 he has managed his farm. If the expense of labor is small, com- 

 pared with the amount of land cultivated, the improvements made, 

 and the products obtained, this may be matter of merit. But if it is 

 made a boast that little labor has been employed, because in truth, 

 litdc land has been cultivated, and little produce grown, it is rather 

 matter of discredit than of commendation. Agriculture can never 

 be eminently successful in Berkshire, until more capital is employed, 

 more labor expended, and more produce raised. The great object 

 of every farmer, I speak of men who pursue farming as merchants 

 pursue trade, and manufacturers pursue manufacturing, should be to 

 produce as much as they can ; and to spare no labor nor expense, ^ 

 while labor and expense can be profitably applied to this single ob- 

 ject of production. The cultivation of esculent vegetables as food 

 for stock, ought to be a prominent object of attention to the Berk- 

 shire farmer. The amount of vegetables raised one year by a farmer 

 in South Lee, viz. two thousand bushels of ruta baga, from two and 

 a half acres of land, and twelve hundred of carrots from two acres, 

 and his opinion of carrots as food for stock, as given in page 92 of 

 this report, and the opinion of a farmer in Pittsfield, of the value of 

 vegetables for stock, in page 101, deserve particular attention. 



5. Comparative value of Hay, Vegetables, and Corn. 

 — I wish briefly to draw the attention of farmers to the value of hay, 

 compared with other crops, for the feeding of stock. An acre of hay 

 yields one ton and a half of vegetable food. An acre of carrots or 

 Swedish turnips, will yield from ten to twenty tons ; say fifteen tons, 

 which is by no means an exaggerated estimate. It has been ascer- 

 tained by experiment, that three working horses, fifteen and a half 

 liands high, consumed at the rate of two hundred and twenty-four 

 pounds of hay per week, or five tons one thousand and forty-eight 

 pounds of hay per year, besides twelve gallons of oats each per 

 week, or seventy-eight bushels by the year. An unworked horse 

 consumed at the rate of four and one-quarter tons of hay in the year. 

 The produce, therefore, of nearly six acres of land is necessary to 



