174 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



tical farmers, will serve to draw attention to this important 

 adjunct of a good farm establishment. 



Oren Benedict, Chairman. 



BRISTOL. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



The committee on Farms and Crops, in making their report, 

 are pleased to notice a growing interest among farmers in gen- 

 eral, not only in regard to the excellence of their crops, but also 

 in the skill and economy of raising them. That there are very 

 few farmers who can afford to grow an inferior, or even an ordi- 

 nary crop, is a fact which is being practically acknowledged. 

 Less land, with more manure and better culture, has to a great 

 extent become the motto of all successful farmers. 



The labor question, or the item of labor, so intimately con- 

 nected with every industry in the community, is of vital impor- 

 tance to the farmer. The prices of farm produce have assumed 

 the old rates which were common before the war, while the 

 prices of labor, which were inflated by the war, have not 

 receded in the least, though the causes, or the most of them 

 which produced the inflation, have long ceased to exist. Hence 

 it is plain that the farm laborer has acquired an advantage over 

 his employer which he does not mean to relinquish, and which, 

 but for the use of agricultural machinery, would render it abso- 

 lutely necessary to abandon farming as a business. Economy 

 in farm labor therefore has become a necessity, and he who 

 practises it the most rigidly, will be the most likely to make 

 farming pay. In fact, we believe that there is no business 

 which, if conducted with a sole view to profit, requires so shrewd 

 management as farming. The preparation of the soil, the selec- 

 tion of seed, the choice and use of fertilizers, the application of 

 labor, the mode of culture, and the final harvesting and market- 

 ing of a crop require constant vigilance on the part of the 

 husbandman. One misstep, or a slight mistake, will often prove 

 fatal to success. Equally fatal are causes almost wholly beyond 

 our control ; such as the drouth, the frost, the blight and mil- 

 dew, and the destructive insect. The skill and ingenuity of the 

 cultivator are constantly taxed to counteract their damaging 

 effects. 



