14 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



town was dying out, farm after farm being deserted, and that 

 the agricultural products of the Commonwealth were being 

 reduced in quantity and value year after year. It occurred 

 to me that as Essex County had been in the olden time a rep- 

 resentative county in agricultural matters, perhaps it might 

 be a representative county still, and I would examine its sta- 

 tistics and see if I could not learn the lesson which has been 

 taught here, year after year, perhaps to encourage me in my 

 belief, which somehow I insisted upon maintaining, that Mas- 

 sachusetts farming was not on the decline ; that it was chang- 

 ing its relations, changing its processes, but advancing still. 

 I found that in this county, since the days which I have been 

 describing, there had grown up large manufacturing centres ; 

 that Lawrence had sprung out of nothing, within twenty-five 

 years, into a town of more than 30,000 people, with mills, 

 shops, congregations of people, the aggregation of a busy 

 population ; that Lynn had increased from 3,000 to 30,000 ; 

 that Gloucester had grown in proportion ; that Haverhill had 

 sprung up from 3,500 to 15,000 people; that Salem had 

 increased from 15,000 to 25,000; that everywhere there 

 were growing towns such as these, which were constantly 

 drawing away people from the land, but at the same time 

 furnishing good markets for all those who chose to remain 

 there. And I ascertained, moreover, that while the cattle of 

 this county were decreasing, the cows were diminishing in 

 number, and the oxen, year after year, were growing less and 

 less, until at last it seemed as if the existence of a good ox- 

 team here had become an impossibility ; while the grain-crop 

 was being reduced from 125,000 bushels down to 50,000 

 annually ; while the hay-crop, even, was being diminished, and 

 the products of the dairy — butter and cheese — were running 

 down year after year, — I found that in one thing the ftirmers 

 of Essex County had learned their lesson, and the figures 

 told me, that in five years they increased their products of 

 market-garden crops from $150,000 to more than $400,000; 

 and I said to myself, while Essex County is increasing in her 

 manufactures, and new cities are growing up here ; while her 

 commercial sections are improving, her farmers have by no 

 means forgotten their business ; and so I accounted to myself 

 for this admirable view which was constantly before me, that 



