SECRETARY'S REPORT. 3 



present time. The sheep has, since then, heen improved to an 

 equal, or even greater extent, both in form and size, and the 

 fineness and value of its wool. The draught horse, so service- 

 able on the farm, long the pride of London, and now equally of 

 Boston, and the noble breed of race horses, so celebrated for 

 their fleetness, were not then known. It is difficult to appre- 

 ciate fully the changes, which the increased attention to agri- 

 culture has effected in domestic animals, even within the last 

 centurv. 



During the early part of the last century, the average gross 

 weight of the neat cattle brought for sale to the Smithfield 

 market, was not over tlirce hundred and seventy pounds, and 

 tliat of sheep, twenty-eight pounds. The average weight of 

 the former, is now over eight hundred pounds, and of the 

 latter, over eighty pounds. On account of the high price of 

 cattle at that period, and the risks to which they were to be 

 exposed, it is not probable that the settlers purchased even 

 the best specimens of the animals then known in England. 

 Such being the state of things, we may easily imagine that the 

 first cattle imported into New England, were of a very inferior 

 quality. 



Nor was the difficulty of procuring agricultural implements 

 the least of the obstacles which the early settlers had to 

 encounter. Some were imported from the mother country, 

 but all could not obtain them in this way. The only metal to 

 be had was made of bog ore, very brittle, and liable to break 

 and put a stop to a day's work. The implements of agricul- 

 ture seem, for the most part, to have been made from this 

 metal, and with comparatively little fitness for the purpose for 

 which they were designed. Even those imported from the moth- 

 er country, were not only of the rudest construction, but were 

 also extremely heavy and unwieldy ; for the men of that time 

 had not discovered the art of diminishing weight without lessen- 

 ing strength. The process of casting steel was not invented 

 till more than a century later, (1750,) and then it was kept a 

 secret in Sheffield for some years. The number and variety of 

 implements have been infinitely increased, even within the last 

 half century, to meet the wants of a more advanced husbandry, 



