26 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



a paying business. Improvements are going on in all the arts of 

 peace and war. The farmer must seize upon -whatever benefits 

 his calling or fall behind a progressing age. 



Is it not time that the farmers of Maine adopted rotation of 

 crops as one of the improvements of the age ? 



Mr. Rogers presented the following report on 



The Agricultural Capabilities of Maine. 



That the soil of Maine is as fertile and productive as that of the 

 prairies or bottom lands of the West, no one asserts. But that it 

 is capable when judiciously managed of richly remunerating the 

 husbandman for all the labor, care and attention that he bestows 

 upon it, the numerous well conducted farms, with their neat, tasty, 

 and in many instances elegant, farm buildings that adorn our rural 

 districts, abundantly testify. 



The farmer of Maine has not so great a surplus for market, as his 

 brother at the West, neither is it necessary ; for his smaller surplus 

 of barley, beans and potatoes, to say nothing of oats, apples, hay, 

 &c., will yield a larger cash return than his western brother's big 

 pile of wheat, corn and pork. 



Although we import a large portion of our flour we are not 

 without our exports. There was exported from the city of Bangor 

 alone, the past year, upwards of 500,000 bushels of potatoes. The 

 probable total export of the State for the same time, was at least 

 1,500,000 bushels, which at an average value of forty cents per 

 bushel will amount to $600,000, besides leaving an abundant sup- 

 ply for our own population, more than sixty per cent, of whom are 

 not producers. Maine is capable of producing with ease almost 

 any quantity of these tubers for which she can find a market. 



Barley, rye and oats in the larger portion of our State are cer- 

 tain crops, and may be cultivated to a much greater extent than 

 has ever yet been done. 



There are annually sent abroad thousands of tons of hay ; and 

 the trains upon our railroads weekly testify to the fact that Maine 

 is largely a stock-growing State. The census returns show that 

 she has made decided advances in this particular in the last decade, 

 yet it is evident to any careful observer that very much more may 

 yet be done in this direction. Indeed, precisely he7'e is the place 

 for improvement. 



