viii BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Nevertheless, there is a necessity for calm judgment and wise 

 action in the guidance of the spirit of progress, else will we find 

 it running riot amongst institutions and forces established and 

 maintained for the benefit of agriculture, tearing down instead 

 of building up, and destroying without effort to replace. It 

 seems, therefore, to your secretary that a careful review of the 

 conditions of the year, both in the practical side of agriculture 

 and the theoretical questions involved, will be an aid towards 

 arriving at a reasonable solution of our present problems; and 

 nowhere is there a better opportunity for the same than in this, 

 my annual report of the work of the Board for the year just 

 closed. 



Taking everything into consideration, we find that the year 

 has been rather below the average for profit with our farmers. 

 Crops have not been especially good, taken as a whole; prices 

 for farm products have been high; so have the prices of those 

 things which the farmer has to purchase, grain, especially, 

 reaching a point unprecedented in recent years. This lias 

 been a serious factor in striking the balance for the year, — 

 more so than formerly, for as farming is now conducted, more 

 and more reliance is placed on the western grains as a source of 

 cattle and animal feed, and less is raised in Massachusetts than 

 ever before. Indeed, it is a question whether this tendency has 

 not been carried to too great an extreme, and if greater profit 

 could not be secured, year in and year out, by a return in a 

 measure to the system of general farming formerly practised. 



The corn crop was much less valuable than usual, owing to 

 the unfavorable conditions of the season, a cold, backward 

 spring being followed by drought during the growing season, 

 and this without any very warm weather, such as was needed 

 to balance the low temperatures of the early summer. As a 

 consequence, much of the crop failed to mature, and it was 

 nearly a failure as a grain crop in some sections. Its value for 

 ensilage was also greatly lessened by the immature condition in 

 which it had to be put into the silo, and the value of the crop to 

 farmers and stock feeders must have been at least a third under 

 the normal. There was an excellent first crop of hay, but the 

 rowen crop was very light, owing to midsummer drought, and 

 the two crops could not have been above the normal, taken in 

 combination. 



