TWE:N^TY-THIRD AJS^miAL eepoet 



OF THE 



SECHETARY 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



To the Senate and House of Rejyresentatives of the Commonwealth of 



Massachusetts. 



The year has been prosperous and favorable for most 

 branches of farming industry. While a continued depression 

 has hung like a pall over mercantile, manufacturing, and 

 mechanical pursuits, paralyzing trade and creating a general 

 want of confidence, a spirit of courage and hopefulness may 

 be said to have pervaded the agricultural community. The 

 presence of heat and moisture, distributed with some degree 

 of uniformity throughout the season of most active vegetation, 

 furnishes the conditions favorable to a productive year on the 

 farm. In this respect the season has been more than usually 

 propitious, no drought of any severity having occurred to 

 injure the crops or cut short the period of vegetable growth. 



Among the enterprises of an agricultural character that are 

 especially worthy of mention, is that of the diking-in and 

 reclaiming extensive tracts of salt marshes along the sea- 

 shore. Green Harbor Marsh, situated in the town of Marsh- 

 field, has been shut off from the tides of the ocean, at an 

 expense exceeding thirty thousand dollars, and over fourteen 

 hundred acres have thus been put into a condition to add 

 materially to the productive wealth of the State. Extensive 

 and careful scientific investigations have been instituted under 



