AGRICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 3G1 



mously voted that Professor Goessmann should continue to 

 give valuations as heretofore. 



Mr. Gkinnell then read a paper on 



THE AGRICULTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS FOR FORTY YEARS. 



The question is often asked, " What has caused the decline 

 of amculture in this Commonwealth? " And answers are 

 given in a spirit of unintelligence, equal, in both the asker 

 and the questioned, as to the real facts, which, when exam- 

 ined, show the assumed premises of a decline to be entirely 

 incorrect in their conception. 



It has for some years become quite common to decry the 

 agriculture of our own State, to speak of it in a deprecatory 

 manner, as if, when compared with other professions or oc- 

 cupations, it were a thing of secondary or even of tertiary 

 importance, highly respectable to be sure, but not an elevated 

 nor a paying profession, nor one which a man would follow 

 if he had any other means of obtaining a living. 



Farming at the East is by many regarded as too laborious 

 and unremunerative. Young men, and old ones too, quit 

 their comfortable homes and a reasonably independent living 

 for the precarious chances of trade in towns and cities, or 

 the uncertain risks of a shifting and dependent employment 

 in and about mills, railways, and factories, or the scarcely 

 less perilous chances of tilling the fertile but malarious lands 

 of the West and South, or rending the bowels of the earth for 

 precious metals ; overlooking, in their desire for sudden and 

 easily acquired riches, the priceless compensation of culture, 

 society, schools, and the church, which they in their west- 

 ward movement leave behind them. 



For much of the desertion of the farm, and tliis seeking 

 other localities and easier occupation by the children, the 

 fathers themselves are largely responsible. 



As a class, farmers certainly incline to be complaining, and 

 discontented with their lot, looking downward and backward 

 rather than upward and onward. They have not formerly 

 taken the pains they should to make their homes bright and 

 cheerful, attractive to the young people; nor have they 

 encouraged their efforts, or mitigated the austerities of their 



