160 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



lantic seaboard westerly; and I have the testimony of no 

 less prominent a man than Professor Smith of the Experi- 

 ment Station in Michigan, who visited Amherst just about 

 a year ago this time, that our corn fields are superior, much 

 superior, he said, to anything that he had seen in Michigan. 

 It is a mistake to believe that our soils are exceptionally poor. 

 Our soils are strong, and they can be cleared and fitted for 

 work by machinery upon a large scale at a cost which will 

 make the business profitable. 



I do not believe, however, as I said a moment before, that 

 we shall engage in raising wheat or even oats in most sec- 

 tions to any great extent ; for we have to consider, as every 

 party does, what is profitable, and in most localities some 

 other line probably will be more profitable than grain rais- 

 ing or meat production. 



The speaker expressed the idea that we ought to raise our 

 grain ; but it is a question for every farmer, who has a cer- 

 tain amount of land and a certain amount of labor, to settle 

 for himself, — Shall I raise grain, or had I better raise 

 potatoes ? And he will decide the question upon the basis 

 of his judgment as to which will give him the most profit, 

 and I believe in the majority of instances it will be the pota- 

 toes, certainly, rather than wheat or oats. 



Massachusetts farming has been discouraging to many, no 

 doubt, and no doubt will be in the future ; but along the line 

 of a more careful study of conditions and in the adaptation 

 of the business to the location I believe there is an oppor- 

 tunity for as great a profit in agriculture here as in any sec- 

 tion of the country. And I not only believe it, I know it, 

 because I know men all over the State who are making the 

 business extremely profitable. 



Mr. W. W. Rawson (of Arlington). The subject of farm 

 help is something that has been troubling a great many for 

 the last few years, although it has never troubled me. But 

 I have gone at it in rather a systematic way, perhaps, to 

 remedy the trouble; that is, keeping nearly all my help the 

 year round, furnishing houses for them to live in near the 

 place or on the place. I have sufficient houses to keep all of 

 them, if I wanted to, for I have over fifty houses, although I 



