8 SECRETARY'S REPORT 



ABSTRACT OF MR. BROOKS' REMARKS, 



— -IS ;; " — 



Mr. Brooks, of Princeton, when called upon, re- 

 marked that he was pleased to meet his brother farm- 

 ers of the Worcester North Agricultural Society, and 

 to be able to express the opinion that the neat stock 

 at the present show was superior to any he had ever 

 seen exhibited at Fitchburg. This to him was exceed- 

 ingly gratifying, as he was one of those who believed 

 the rearing and feeding of cattle and sheep was one of 

 the best means of renovating and improving our farms. 

 He said that farmers, in his judgment, did not make 

 sufficient outlay of capital upon their lands, but were 

 too desirous of placing their surplus earnings at inter- 

 est, which they could not afford to do so long as they 

 possessed a rod of land susceptible of improvement. 

 There were very many acres of land in the county 

 that, by an expenditure of fifty dollars upon each acre, 

 would pay annually the interest on this outlay, and 

 give yearly two or three times the former income 

 derived from the same land. He had cleared off brush 

 and stones some thirty acres of old pasture land, with- 

 in the last thirty years, and was well satisfied with the 

 experiment. In his view it was much better for farm- 

 ers to expend their earnings in improvements upon 

 their farms, than to place them out at interest, for by 

 placing them at interest they would find that, at the 

 expiration of every twenty years, they had lost a large 

 amount of the capital so placed. As proof of this, Mr. 

 Brooks said that the money loaned was to traders and 



