10 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



regular supply and delivery of milk; and it is to be hoped 

 that it will not be long before there will be a union of the 

 interests of consumers and producers in this Commonwealth 

 similar to the organization called the Aylesbury Dairy Com- 

 pany of London that has been very successful in improving 

 the milk-supply of that city. 



This is a matter not merely bearing upon the profit of the 

 farmer, but affecting luxury and refinement, the necessities, 

 of the poor, and the public health. A reform can only be 

 accomplished by the assistance of consumers. 



CORN. 



This once important product of the Commonwealth has 

 been allowed to decline, because most of our farmers, during 

 the late years of high-priced labor, have found it impossible 

 to successfully compete with the West. 



BUSHELS. 



In 1855 our crop was ...... 2,595,090 



1805 " " " 2,015,771 



1875 « " <. 1,040,290 



We have no means of knowing what it was at the last 

 harvest ; but its cultivation, under improved methods, is on 

 the increase, and with a success that must have a great 

 influence in restoring confidence in it as a profitable crop to 

 be (Tenerallv undertaken. 



The Western farmers owe their success to ease of cultiva- 

 tion, rather than to the productiveness of their soil. Our 

 lands 3-ield more bushels to the acre of better corn ; but, 

 fixed and conservative in methods, we have persisted in a 

 system of cultivation that, while it is expensive, adds no 

 corresponding value to tlie crop, and have, consequently, 

 been beaten in our own market. 



Our ancestors on the coast found llie Indian raising corn 

 in a hill which he manured with a fish. His squaw hoed it 

 with a bone fastened by thongs to a stick, and gathered a 

 satisfactory crop. The Indian method was adopted, with 

 the added advantage of a steel hoe, but with the loss of the 

 labor of the squaw. The cost of the corn-crop has been in 

 the labor of hand-hoeing, the most exigent work of the 

 season, in which the farmer, pressed by the crowding duties 



