190 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. [Jan. 



compared with farming in other places, or even with many 

 other kinds of business. No safe investment pavys so well 

 to-day as it did twenty-five years ago. It is more difficult 

 now to make safe investments jaeld five per cent than it was 

 then to yield seven or eight })er cent. I believe from all the 

 data I have been able to collect that New England as a whole 

 is not declining in its agricultural productions, either as to 

 amount or value. It is certain that this State of Massachu- 

 setts is not. 



Massachusetts'' Agriculture. 



We have a census of agricultural products of Massachu- 

 setts, beginning fifty years ago ; that is, going back to before 

 the days of railroad transportation, and before the days of 

 reaping machines or telegraph. I have spent much time and 

 study on agricultural census tables in general, and of Massa- 

 chusetts in particular, l)ecause this State is the only one in 

 New England which has a census of its own, alternating with 

 the national census, and more complete than that in its 

 agricultural details. This is a rich theme for study, but I 

 can only glance at some of the facts which have an especial 

 bearing on the subject I am discussing. 



The figures show that during the last ten ^'-ears, the years 

 of greatest agricultural depression, not only in New England 

 but elsewhere, the total production did not decline, l)ut actu- 

 ally increased twenty-eight per cent ; during this period the 

 total area of land in farms increased, the acreage of cultivated 

 land increased, and the number of persons employed in 

 agriculture increased. The decline, if there was any, was 

 not in the amount of land tilled, nor in the number of per- 

 sons employed, nor in the value of the products produced. 



If we look at the whole period of fifty years, the results 

 are very instructive. There has l)een an enormous increase, ' 

 instead of decline ; some things have greatly declined, 

 especially mutton, cheese, wool and some other products ; 

 but even grain-raising has declined less than is popularly 

 believed. I have constructed tables showing the amount of 

 each of the cereal grains produced in each of the census 

 years, and also the total amount of cereals. The tal)les 

 would be too extensive for this place ; sufficient to say that 



