112 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and there are other drawbacks to his calling besides this re- 

 striction. 



In small fruits the present business is excellent and the 

 outlook encouraging. As one illustration from many, take 

 that from a recent issue of our bright and energetic weekly, 

 "The New England Homestead." The farmer who is the 

 subject of its sketch, went on to his present farm twenty 

 years ago and tried sheep ; dogs put a stop to that. He tried 

 beef, but could not compete with the West. Then, instead of 

 saying " farming don't pay," he said " this kind of farming 

 don't pay, but there's a kind that does and I'll find it." He 

 began to raise small fruits, — apples, strawberries. When 

 he began to raise the latter, three hundred quarts were the 

 product of his summer's work, and he thought these would 

 *' glut the market ; " but his business grew steadily for fifteen 

 years, and now his one thousand bushels a summer are sold 

 promptly at profitable prices, with more asked for. 



So much for milk and perishable fruits. A showing even 

 more favorable for the Massachusetts " specialty" farmer can 

 be made by an investigation of the " gilt-edged "' butter busi- 

 ness. 



In the first place we must recognize the vast changes ac- 

 complished in Massachusetts and in the United States during 

 the past forty years. I will not weary you with the number 

 of miles of railroad built, or the number of acres of land 

 brought under the plough, or the improvement in agricul- 

 tural implements during this period. I simply want to re- 

 mind some of my conservative hearers that it has not been a 

 period of sleep nor idleness, — the period between 1843 and 

 1883, — for the actions if not the words of not a few Massa- 

 chusetts farmers would seem to imply that no change in- the 

 conditions of their calling has been made. But, as proof to 

 the contrary, take one example. In 1843 the New England 

 farmer harvested four bushels of wheat a day : now the west- 

 ern farmer harvests one hundred and forty bushels a day. 



The fertility of the western soil, the improvement in agri- 

 cultural implements and the perfection of railroad transporta- 

 tion, have they made no change in the markets of Massachu- 

 setts? At last the conservative New England farmer was 

 compelled to [confess that in the matter of corn, oats and 



