REPORTS OF THE BOARD. 349 



press to show that the report is inferior in interest and 

 vahie to no simihir state publication in the country. 



But, in addition to this Abstract, the hnv requires an 

 annual report of the Board of Agriculture, and these reports 

 are to be prepared by the Secretary. I have labored to make 

 them of interest, and of immediate practical value to the 

 farmers of the State. It is but justice to myself to say, that 

 though the expectations of the community, at the time of the 

 establishment of the Board, had been raised to such an unrea- 

 sonable height that no human efforts could be likely to 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 complete and thorough manner, 

 brino-lng tojiether a mass of information which was not else- 

 where available to the farmer. 



In my first report, for example, among many other topics 

 of general interest, including a sketch of the past history of 

 our agriculture 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, Avas beginning to excite considerable 

 interest in some parts of the State. On account of the little 

 attention which had previously been paid to the sul)ject, 

 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 cultivated cranberries, in difterent 

 parts of the State, seeking information from every source. I 

 thus brought together a greater amount of scientific and prac- 

 tical information, in regard to that particular crop, than had 

 ever before been collected. I feel that I may make this state- 

 ment with some degree of confidence, since I gave the subject 

 a most thorough and searchino^ investiijation. That part of 

 the report, and many others, were copied and quoted and 

 circulated through the country, from Maine to Georgia, some- 

 times with credit to the farmers of Massachusetts, but often 

 without. I learned soon after, from reliable sources of inform- 

 ation, that many acres were cultivated with cranberries in 



