MASSACHUSETTS FARMING. 
207 
his neighborhood for many miles around him, no 
one has a better opportunity to excel as a farmer 
than himself. What but absolute want of taste, 
and a total absence of all observation and interest 
in the prolific bounties of nature, should prevent 
our country physicians from being our best hus¬ 
bandmen and stock-breeders? Of all the profes¬ 
sions connected with rural life, commend me to 
that of the country doctor. I speak it with all 
possible respect and approbation, and for one I 
most humbly thank Dr. Stevens for bringing this 
subject, before the public; and I wish now, some 
one would follow up the hint by a lecture on The 
Clergyman an Agriculturist. After this should 
come the Squire. What a glorious trio. I can 
not help apostrophizing them in the language of 
the poet: 
Parson, doctor, and the squire ! 
Best adviser, 
Best prescriber. 
Best decider, 
Why not best of farmers then ? PUTNAM. 
MASSACHUSETTS FARMING. 
Notwithstanding there are some things in this 
state to lament, there is much which calls forth 
our admiration, things worthy of imitation by every 
citizen of the United States, who wishes to make 
himself comfortable and easy in his circumstances 
by that course of conduct which has never been 
known to fail of success, viz., by purchasing a few 
acres of land, and paying for it, and then living 
upon what he can raise from it by his own labor, 
until by the fruits of his earnings he has some¬ 
thing to spare for the labor of his less provident 
neighbor, who has to give labor in exchange for 
bread. There have been many glowing accounts 
given in the Agriculturist of farms renovated ; of 
swamps drained ; of rocks too large to be removed 
sunk so deep as to enable the husbandman to plow 
over and raise a crop upon them ; of fine houses, 
bams, and out-buildings ; of pleasure-gardens and 
green-houses; of large fields and great crops ; of 
fine thorough bred stock; of horses, cattle, sheep, 
and swine. All this is very well, and those gen¬ 
tlemen who have retired from business, with their 
thousands of dollars, can not be too much applaud¬ 
ed for the example they have with so much lauda¬ 
ble zeal given to others, who might do as they 
have done, instead of spending their ten thousand 
dollars a year by living an idle city life, or travel¬ 
ling in Europe to see, hear, and find out things 
that are worse than useless, and never ought to be 
known or practised in our happy republic. 
When I ask the small farmer or mechanic why 
he don’t improve his lands, and do as Mr. C., Q., or 
Z. are' doing with their lands, and get an equal 
amount of produce according to the number of acres 
they cultivated, the general, reply is, “ Oh, these 
are book farmers; I can’t afford to take agricultural 
papers, and iff could, I have no time to read them. 
Besides, it is their money which gives them their 
large crops, and their roots and grain which makes 
their breed of cattle better than mine.” When I 
assure them it is not so, that the rich man prop¬ 
erly conducting his farming operations, reaps an 
income from his outlay, that 1 have seen the bal¬ 
ance sheet of their outlays and returns, and that 
they show a profit on their investments equal to that 
of any other business—speculating in corner lots and 
mulberry trees to the contrary notwithstanding. 
Among others I quoted Honest John Davis, late 
governor of Massachusetts, who had recently sta¬ 
ted to me, among many other interesting things, 
that he had purchased fifteen acres of miserable, 
poor, worn-out land, a few years previously, divided 
it into three lots of four', five, and six acres; that 
through the summer last past he had pastured a 
yoke of large working oxen on the four-acre lot, 
which are now (November 12th) in high condi¬ 
tion, fit to put into the stalls for feeding, and still 
the feed was luxuriant at that late season. On 
the five-acre lot three cows had been pastured, 
from which milk, cream, and butter, had been ob¬ 
tained for a large family, besides several pots of 
butter put down for winter use, or for sale. I have 
known in my travels a breeder of fine stock who 
kept 36 cows, and had to buy his butter for fam¬ 
ily use ! And not over four cows out of the herd 
could be approached with a milk-pail—many of 
their bags or teats injured, and the calves which 
run with the cows as wild as buffaloes.* The six- 
acre lot was equally productive. I understood him 
to say it had afforded two good crops of hay. 
When asked by a neighbor what he had done to 
that piece of land to make it produce so much, he 
replied, “Very little. I mowed the brush with 
which it was covered, and sowed it with plaster 
at the rate of a bushel to the acre. For the first 
two years very little benefit appeared from its use, 
since which the grass has continued to thicken 
and grow more luxuriant from year to year, and is 
now a perfect mat over the whole ground.” 
But I can hear Brother Jonathan saying to me, 
“You needn’t tell me nothin’ about Governor Da¬ 
vis’s farming ; he was college lam’d, and a lawyer 
to boot—then went to congress—and then was 
governor of the old Bay State—and then went to 
congress agin as senator; if he knows anything, 
’taint nothin’ but book farming. Plaster wont do 
land no good, I tell ye; if it makes more crop on 
land this year, there wont nothin’ grow on it next.” 
To all this I can only answer, that the governor 
was brought up on a farm; that his father, grand¬ 
father, and great-grandfather, before him, were all 
farmers ; and that the latter carried his plow sev¬ 
eral miles upon his back 130 years ago, when he 
first came into Worcester, because there was no 
road, and the trees, bogs, and brush, were so thick 
he could not draw it with oxen to the land he had 
purchased. 
There, Brother Johnny, is a farming pedigree 
for you; so now turn about and make as good a 
manager of your land as honest John Davis, your 
late governor. A Traveller. 
* Our correspondent seems disposed to be rather sar¬ 
castic on fine stocks and farming in general, and ourselves 
in particular; but he shall have his say, for fear he might 
accuse us of partiality, and is welcome to cut and thrust 
as he pleases. We could defend, under certain circum¬ 
stances, the practice of letting calves run with their dams, 
and several other things here touched upon by “ A Trav¬ 
eller,” yet would rather leave the matter to some western 
correspondent, where farming is necessarily done, and 
profitably too, on a large scale.—E d. 
