180 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



increased by the introduction of farm machinery, to the use of which 

 its level prairie soils are admirably adapted. 



The great agricultural staples of a vast territory once supposed 

 to be inaccessable to our Eastern markets are now thrown upon 

 them, and often at a less cost for transportation than like products 

 can be shipped from the remote portions of New England. The 

 result of such a combination of influences is inevitable. Our 

 markets are flooded and broken, and competition in the line of 

 Western grain and other staples rendered hopeless on the part of tbe 

 New England farmer. He is even strongly tempted lO buy his 

 home supplies rather than raise them, often paying out large sums 

 in the aggregate which he can not afford to spare, and consequently 

 neglecting the systematic development of his farm and the attain- 

 ment of that high productive capacit}' in the various departments of 

 his agricultural work as indispensible to success. 



It is a great temptation to the man who is disposed to take life 

 easy to drive to the mill or depot and return with a load of Western 

 grain purchased at a low price rather than produce it himself, and 

 then console himself with the argument that it is cheaper than he 

 can grow it upon his own farm. 



These changed conditions have evidently come to stay, at least 

 until this generation has passed off the stage. What the ultimate 

 result of an increase in the population of the West may do towards 

 the restoration of our markets is a matter which need have no 

 practical bearing upon our present plans. The key note of our 

 New England agriculture must be cheap and abundant production i 

 rather than unlimited purchase even at low rates. We must adapt 

 our farming to these changed conditions, and produce for the 

 market those wares with which we can most successfull}' compete 

 with Western producers. We must, at the same time, make our 

 farms self sustaining, often producing for home consumption those 

 wares which we can not afll^ord to produce for sale in the market. 



It is a practical fact which I have often observed that those 

 farmers who rely upon the purchase of Western grain do not as a 

 rule develop the productive capacity of their farms and succeed as 

 well financially as do those who adopt an opposite course. Grain 

 must be used freely, especially in connection with winter dairying 

 and if not raised it must be purchased. 



The plow must necessarily be the leading implemeat in the work 

 of home production and of farm improvement. It may, though, be 



