266 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
These tables exhibit the prevailing characteristics and tendencies of 
rural husbandry in this section, and show that the stock interest is de- 
clining, that breadstuffs command quite as little attention as heretofore, 
and that fruit-growing and market-gardening are rapidly i increasing. It 
is not probable that the census returns include all the advance in these 
industries. It must be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to obtain 
avery near approach to completeness in returns of products grown 
everywhere, in town and country, in isolated patches; and the aggregate 
would be greatly enlarged if the immense quantities of wild berries 
could be included. 
The decrease of milch cows has been 43 per cent. in Rhode Island, 43 
in Netw Hampshire, 54 in Maine, and 20 in Massachusetts; but Connee- 
ticut has made a slight advance, and Vermont an increase ‘of 3 per cent. 
In all the States the number of * oxen and other cattle” has decreased. 
The dectine in the numbers of sheep and swine.has been heavy, yet in 
1867 the number of sheep was undoubtedly greater than in 1860. The 
number of farm horses has increased in Maine, Rhode Island, and Con-- 
necticut, -and decreased in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachu- 
setts. If an enumeration of horses in the cities could be made, a differ- 
ent result might be attained in the latter States. 
PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 
While the facts here presented are fragmentary, and the investigation 
incomplete, enough is learned to prove that rural pursuits are profitable 
in the hands of enterprising men, and to show that many farms are 
managed in an unprogressive manner and with unremunerative results. 
Gardening and fruit-growing, when followed with skill and method, 
yield handsome returns; aud yet the demand, especially for early fruits 
and vegetables, is scantily supplied, and prices ave high. The prices of 
small fruits are far higher in Boston and Lowell, and the quantity con- 
sumed much less in proportion to population, than in Baltimore and 
Washington. Norfolk sends immense quantities of early strawberries 
to those « cities, but we never hear that New Hampshire or Maine sends 
late supplies after the local crop is gone. To be sure, there is greater 
eagerness for the first pennies, yet the latest command high prices and 
meet a ready sale, and there is no surfeit of raspberries, blueberries, or 
blackberries to destroy the demand. ‘There is a marked deficiency in 
production of the finer vegetables, as asparagus, spinach, cauliflower, 
&ec., in interior towns, and tomatoes and other vegetables might be 
brought into market earlier by the -ingenions and inexpensive forcing 
-processes known to skilled mar Pa gE wdeners, in profit: able competition 
with the wilted, sometimes decaying and unwholesome vegetables 
brought from a arent distance. It is astonishin 2 that the farmers and 
mechanics of interior towns do not cultivate strawberries and other 
small fruits in their gardens to an extent fourfold greater than they 
already do. While there are fruit-growers and market-gardeners about 
Boston who are excelled in skill by none in the country, there are mul- 
titudes of interior towns which can neither boast advanced practices in 
horticulture nor early and abundant supplies from local sources. 
Considerable advances have been made in the use of agricultural 
machinery; mowers are used on ten farms for every one cutting grass 
by horse-power ten years ago; but there are many farms smooth 
enough for the mower which still employ only the traditional scythe. 
Much of the labor of hand-hoeing, now exceedingly expensive, might 
be done with the horse-boe; where rocks or other obstructions inter- 
fere, a small expenditure would fit the surface for machine cultivation. 
