410 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



should strongly advise making a similar tally-ho as often as 

 a customer can be found ; for ordinary travel, however, let 

 the stage coach, like the abandoned farm, remain in idle- 

 ness. 



I am by no means proclaiming the decadence of Massa- 

 chusetts farming, I am asserting that competition has driven 

 the successful farmer from old methods to intelligent 

 methods along a few well-chosen lines. The aggregate value 

 of the State's agricultural products has constantly increased, 

 while the number and variety of those products have greatly 

 changed. Let us now turn to a consideration of some of 

 those products, for if, notwithstanding loss in many lines, 

 there has been an aggregate gain, it is weft to examine the 

 lines upon which such gain has been made. If our loss has 

 been largely in those products which may be brought from a 

 distance, then we may expect to find our gain in those 

 articles which must be grown near to the consumer ; in other 

 . words, in the products which are perishable. If this be 

 true, does it imply occupation but for the few? Not at all ; 

 to supply the wants of two and one-half millions of people 

 in these products alone will give abundant scope for our 

 activities. 



Let us first look at the milk industry, and see if our theory 

 holds true. The sterilization of milk may be made practi- 

 cable in the future ; at the present it is fair to consider it as 

 perishable. In 1865 the value of the beef product of 

 Massachusetts was $8,188,564, in 1885 $718,932, — a loss 

 in twenty years of $7,469,632. How can we expect to 

 make up such an appalling deficit? Let us look at the milk 

 account for relief. In 1865 the value of our milk product 

 was $1,956,187, in 1885 $10,312,762,— a gain of $8,356,575; 

 thus not only making up our loss on beef, but leaving 

 nearly $1,000,000 to spare. Does this look like decadence 

 in Massachusetts farming? Let us further examine the 

 figures bearing upon this increasing article of food, for they 

 are worthy of careful scrutiny. In 1845 we produced 

 2,850,412 gallons; in 1855,3,300,916; in 1865, 10,079,- 

 180; in 1875,35,698,159; in 1885, 72,528,628. In the 

 year 1895, by the same ratio of increase, we will produce 

 150,000,000 gallons. Here then is an industry that Massa- 



