72 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



State. It is but justice to myself to say, that, though the expect- 

 ations of the community, at the time of the establishment of 

 the Board, had been raised to such an unreasonable height, that 

 no human efforts could possibly satisfy them, the plan adopted 

 in the reports has commended itself to the good judgment of 

 those who understand best the wants of the farming community. 

 This plan was to take up some particular topic on which the 

 community desired information and discuss it in the most com- 

 plete and thorough manner, bringing together a mass of infor- 

 mation which was not elsewhere available to the farmer. 



In my first report, for example, among many other topics of gen- 

 eral interest, including a sketch of the past history of our agricul- 

 ture down to the present time, and a vast amount of statistical 

 information in regard to its present condition, I entered upon 

 the subject of the cultivation of cranberries, which at that time 

 was beginning to excite considerable interest in some parts of 

 the State. On account of the little attention which had pre- 

 viously been paid to the subject, information as to the natural 

 history of the plant was difficult of access to those who wished 

 for it. In the preparation of that part of the report, I visited 

 many plantations ; in all, more than a hundred acres of culti- 

 vated cranberries, in different parts of the State, seeking infor- 

 mation from every source. I thus Ijrought together a greater 

 amount of scientific and practical information in regard to that 

 particular crop, than had ever before been collected. I feel 

 that I may make this statement with some degree of confidence, 

 since I gave the subject a most thorough and searching investi- 

 gation. That part of the report, and many others, were copied, 

 and quoted, and circulated through the country from Maine to 

 Georgia, sometimes with credit to the farmers of Massachusetts, 

 but often without. I have learned from reliable sources of 

 information, that many acres have been cultivated with cran- 

 berries in this State, which would not have been so treated but 

 for the stimulus given by that report, and the cultivators are 

 now receiving the most liberal rewards for their labor. 



I mention this only as an example of the plan, which, after 

 very mature consideration, and with a full knowledge of the 

 whole field of labor, it was thought best at first to adopt, and of 

 the good effects which have followed from it. 



The Board of Agriculture have also labored to systematize 



