150 Transactions of tee American Institute. 



crop in many localities, liave become sure and reliable modes of 

 obtaining an ample income from the land. Seldom have well- 

 ordered efforts been made in these directions in vain. The earth and 

 the animal kingdom are sure to respond favorably when the appeal 

 is made to them in proper form. And so, the careful breeder of cat- 

 tle, horses and sheep, the skillful cultivator of onions, or carrots or 

 tobacco, the accurate manager of hot-beds or green-houses, all pros- 

 per. And under this rule may and will be brouglit grass and grain, 

 when the new lands shall have become old and their original fertil- 

 ity shall have been lost. The statement which I made two years 

 ago, at the meeting of the IN^ew England Agricultural Society in 

 Providence, that a farmer in Massachusetts has made a fortune of 

 nearly $250,000, in thirty years, on thirty-five acres of land, was 

 ipade in reference to one instance of special farming which had come 

 under my own observation. The fortunate cultivator is a resident of 

 Middlesex county, Massachusetts ; his farming is as systematic as the 

 management of a cotton mill; his crops, standing in alternate rows, 

 as uniform as the colors woven by a Jacquard loom, 'come forward so 

 as to keep the soil in constant occupation, and his skill witli glass 

 tm'ns January into July. Noav York and Boston are his markets. 

 And he is not alone in his prosperity, nor in his luxuriant crops of 

 lettuce, cucumbers, spinach and other esculents, which he produces 

 almost every month in the year, under the heats and frosts of a 

 northern latitude. 



Faem Labor and MAcnmEKT. 

 !Now, in order to make this prosperity more general tlian it now 

 is, we need a more accurate direction of farm labor tlian we now 

 have, and improved and additional fiirm machinery. The applica- 

 tion of skilled labor to the land is becoming an imperative necessity. 

 The time is passing away when the man who is fit for nothing else is 

 fit for the farm. And in no branch of busmess is it more important 

 that two men should not be directed to do what can just as well be 

 done by one. The proper distribution of skilled «nd competent 

 labor is a part of the necessary management of every good farm and 

 the effort of every good farmer. And this labor should be aided in 

 every way by the best machinery. Urging upon our mechanics the 

 necessity of constructing strong, reliable, well-built machinery, with 

 the best materials of metal and wood, without which they will dis- 

 appoint the farmer and injure their own reputation, I would remind 

 them that agriculture still demands the application of the best 



