12 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tures of this county during the year 1875 was $20,590,132 ; 

 and the number of persons employed 9,586 males and 1,629 

 females, whose wages amounted to $5,324,442, or $474.63 

 to each male and female : estimating three hundred working- 

 days in the year, it would give $1.58 per day to each person 

 employed. 



Turning to the agricultural products of the county, I find 

 their value in 1875 to be $2,124,288. The total amount of 

 wages not being given, I am unable to compare them with 

 those of mechanics. 



The number of acres of woodland in the county in 1830 

 was 35,111 ; in 1875, 161,275, — an increase of 126,164 acres. 



The number of tons of English hay raised in 1830 was 

 10,921; in 1875, 21,723, — an increase of 10,802 tons. 



The agricultural products of the county have changed so 

 much during the past fifty years, there is but little chance for 

 comparison. We have turned our attention from grain and 

 cattle to fruits and vegetables, not on account of the char- 

 acter of the soil or any change in the climate, but because 

 improved facilities for rapid and cheap transportation long 

 distances enable the Western farmer to deliver grain to us 

 at prices so low, that we can pay for it by labor in the work- 

 shop more easily than we can produce it from our own soil ; 

 and so those who continue to till the soil find it for their 

 interest to cultivate such crops as cannot be easily transported 

 long distances. 



A few 3'ears of depression in manufacturing business hao 

 a tendency to diminish the number of mechanics, and increaoe 

 the number of farmers. This naturally fills the market with 

 perishable produce, and compels the farmer once more to 

 turn his attention to grain-crops. With improved methods 

 of fertilizing and tilling the soil, and with reduced prices of 

 lalDor, he finds he is able to compete with the Western 

 farmer. 



Plymouth County has a climate and a soil as well adapted 

 to the growth of Indian corn, rye, barley, fruit, and vegetables, 

 as any portion of our country. I say this with a full knowl- 

 edge that many writers represent the Old Colony as having 

 a climate fit only for the polar bear, and a soil not only 

 rocky and cold, but excessively poor. Our records show 

 that our climate is warmer than the same latitude west of 



