SECEETARY'S EEPOET. 51 



Gutter and cheese, although mentioned in many cases, do not 

 receive the prominence, even in the towns declared best for 

 <>Tazing and stock growing, which Avould naturally be expected, 

 ^or do we find elsewhere, evidence that this is so prominent a 

 pursuit as our facilities warrant. Very few cattle, very little 

 beef, butter or cheese are exported from the State; so far from 

 •this, dairy products '(particularly cheese) are imported, q,\\(\. beef 

 has been sold in our shambles the present year, from cattle 

 brought a thousand miles by railroad, (from Ohio) and slaugh- 

 tered here ! What shall we think, then ? Are the replies in- 

 correct, and is Maine really so ill adapted to these products, 

 that we can ailbrd to grow something elsCj, wherewith to pay a 

 tariff, or an advance upon the cost of jjroduction elsewhere, 

 equal to tlic price of five hundred or one thousand miles of 

 transportation added to the profits of those who traffic in them ? 

 Is it because our means of transportation are so poor that we 

 eannot afford to carry such heavy or bulky articles from the 

 interior where produced, to our seaboard or principal markets? 

 Can it be because the efforts of our farmers are not directed in 

 the most judicious and profitable direction ? Can it be because 

 the production of these is attended with too. much exhaustion 

 of the natural resources and fertility of the farm, and so we can- 

 not afford it ? — cannot afford to retain all the manure yielded 

 as a side product on the land? 



I propose no solution to these queries, hoping that the bare 

 mention of the facts, as they seem to be, may prove sufficiently 

 suggestive, to excite inquiry enough to enable all interested to 

 decide, each for himself, and to profit by his conclusions. 



I would by no means be understood as alleging that stock- 

 growing, dairy-husbandry, and the like, do not, at the present 

 time, consitute a principal branch of our agriculture; for such 

 would not be in accordance with the facts in the case ; but wish 

 rather, to direct attention to the inquiry, whether, with our 

 facilities as a State, we should not export largely, rather than 

 import at all, except it be choice animals for purposes of im- 

 provement in breed. Indeed, the simple fact that our hay crop, 

 with only the attention now given, must probably amount (tak- 

 ing the census returns of 1850, as a basis of calculation,) to not 



