154 BOARD OF AGKICULTURE. 



Agricultural Statistics. 



At the last session of the legisUiture an act was passed requiring 

 assessors to make return, to the office of the Secretary of State, 

 of agricultural statistics, according to the facts as they existed on 

 the first of April in each year. Returns were received from three 

 hundred and fourteen towns and plantations. From one hundred 

 and ninety-one none were received. There being no provision for 

 putting the facts into any available form, I have devoted consider- 

 able labor to the preparation of the following tables, which, although 

 necessarily imperfect, present many points of interest. 



The value of statistics depends, in the first place upon accuracy, 

 and next upon continuance during a series of years, every year 

 greatlj'^ enhancing the value of the deductions to be drawn from 

 them for the guidance both of legislation and of private enterprise. 

 Many of these returns bear internal evidence to the fidelity and 

 care with which they were prepared, while others suggest the idea 

 that possibly they may be only estimates. The assessors in one 

 instance express the belief that the products are considerably un- 

 der-stated, on account of an impression prevailing that the answers 

 given would somehow be connected with taxation. The remark 

 would probably be true in other cases, for we find upon comparing 

 these returns with those of the United States census of 1860, that 

 in some towns the crops are stated to be only about one-half as 

 large as by those for that year, while in towns adjoining the same 

 crops are fully as large or larger. In some cases the discrepancy 

 is greater than can be accounted for on this supposition. For in- 

 stance, Aroostook county is set down in the census for 1860 as 

 having produced 129,180 lbs. of maple sugar, while by these returns 

 for 1861, from twenty-four towns and plantations, only 6,517 lbs. 

 are reported ; suggestive of a very large falling off, perhaps by 

 reason of an unfavorable season or other causes. 



It is much to be regretted that all the towns and plantations did 

 not make returns. Many of those wanting are comparatively small, 

 but they also embrace others largely engaged in agricultural pur- 

 suits ; such as Danville and Lewiston in Androscoggin, Houlton 

 and Presque Isle in Aroostook, Bridgton and Scarboro' in Cumber- 



