1860. 



KEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



115 



not devoted to profitable wood raising, as even to 

 raise wood, he considered, was profitable at the 

 prices now obtained for it. He recommended that 

 to make our farming population more dense we 

 should have small farms and more of them, and 

 this would be the first great step in making agri- 

 culture both profitable and pleasant. 



The honorable gentleman said that, if only half 

 the waste land in Middlesex County were put to 

 use, it would make 1000 farms of 56 acres each, 

 and with proper attention this would be as pro- 

 ductive land as any in the county. There is great 

 uneasiness, said the speaker, on the part of far- 

 mers' boys to get away from home, as their se- 

 cluded position there did not give them a chance 

 for that social improvement the human mind nat- 

 urally seeks. 



In alluding to his advocacy of contracting the 

 length and breadth of farms, Mr. Goodwin urged 

 that the depth should be extended by deep plowing, 

 which, in this section, Avas too much neglected, the 

 average depth of plowing not exceeding five inches. 

 This would Mt the right remedy, and be undoubt- 

 edly profitable, as notwithstanding many other 

 doctrines which had been advocated had been "run 

 into the ground," it was not so in agriculture. 



Mr. Goodwin said there were lots of land where 

 deep plowing would not do, but he thought that 

 in the large majority of farms the plowing was 

 not more than half deep enough. He then spoke 

 of manure, and said that the making of more of 

 this v/as essential to profitable farming, yet our 

 fdrnicrs mostly let the road washings, rotten 

 wood, decayed leaves, . soap-suds, and numerous 

 other fertilizers, go to waste at their very doors, 

 for the want of a knowledge of their value. It is 

 not in actual barn manure, said the speaker, that 

 the farmer has to use economy in collecting, but 

 in all those fertilizers that are so numerous 

 around a farm-house. 



The speaker illustrated his argument in favor 

 of deep plowing by speaking of a man in Haver- 

 hill, who, by turning up the ground from a depth 

 of lu inches, and economy in his collecting ma- 

 nure, and properly mixing it, had raised his corn 

 produce in one year from 40 to 90 bushels to the 

 acre. The common expression, said he, when you' 

 attempt to explain the importance of attention to 

 the collection of fertilizers to farmers, is, "I can- 

 not afford to bother," when this very bother not 

 only is a sure source of profit, but with that a 

 pleasure. He did not believe in the great mass 

 of chemical compoimds brought into the market 

 as fertilizers Vv'ere of any good, and he was inclined 

 to pronounce many of them humbugs. 



Pigs, said Mr. Goodwin, should be the hardest 

 workers on the farm, and his father difi"ered with 

 the majority of farmers in thinking the pork a 

 secondary consideration to the amount of work a 



pig would do in working up the manure heap and 

 making comjiost. Our farmers, said he, devote 

 too much land to pasturage, which, from want of 

 care, was poor and unprofitable, and from this he 

 argued that smaller farms, more deeply worked 

 and well manured, would be the most profitable 

 to the owner. Mr. Goodwin said that in his opin- 

 ion there was nothing better to make farming 

 more jjleasant than good gardens, and he spoke of 

 the attention that was paid to this in Concord, 

 Wayland and Danvers, and said nothing paid 

 better or saved so much in household expenses. 

 An agricultural missionary, said the speaker, can- 

 not find a better text to preach upon than family 

 gardens. 



Mr. Goodwin closed his remarks by sajing that 

 our village schools would be for better if farming 

 was better managed, and he thought this bar to 

 obtaining a better education -w-as one of the prin- 

 cipal reasons for this longing on the part of young 

 people to leave home. 



Simon Bkown, editor of the JVew England 

 Farmer, was then called on to speak. He said 

 he felt encouraged by the interest that was mani- 

 fested in regard to the subject under discussion. 

 Two things operated as a hindrance to good and 

 pleasant farming ; one was, that agriculture was 

 looked on as an improfitahle employment, and 

 the other, that it was not so rcspedahle as other 

 occupations. He had travelled extensively among 

 the farmers of this State, and he knew that there 

 was no better plan to fiaad this out than by con- 

 ference with women, and in conversing with them 

 it will be found that nearly nine-tenths of the 

 girls would prefer a man for a husband in almost 

 any other business than that of farming. 



The question as to how farming may be made 

 profitable and pleasant is not merely of impor- 

 tance to us, but to those who are to succeed us ; 

 and in considering the matter, our first object is 

 to secure happiness, and then profit. The man, 

 said Mr. Brown, is the most happy who has a 

 farm of fifty acres, paid for, with a house and ne- 

 cessary farm buildings on it, and with "a little 

 more than will make both ends meet." He can go 

 abroad, and know when he returns that he has a 

 liome with all its comforts, that he has a roof to 

 shelter him, a comfortable bed to lay down on, 

 and a table bountifully provided, around which his 

 wife and children gather with real pleasure ; he 

 is near a well populated village, and has a per- 

 manent home and permanent employment, thus 

 making him contented and happy. There are 

 few farmers of this class who do not lay by money, 

 and who have not an opportunity to educate a son 

 at college and thus supply the cities with men who 

 rarely fail to become prominent in some of the 

 professions. He contended that there would not 

 be found more than one farmer who became a 



