INDUSTRIES OF WESTFIELD. 9 



is not so extensive as it was at one time. I do not know that 

 a bushel of wheat has been raised in this town for the last six 

 years. The reason is, I suppose, that the cultivation of the 

 other article I have mentioned, tobacco, has consumed a great 

 portion of the fertilizers that could be produced here, and the 

 consequence is, as we cannot raise it as we did once by the 

 aid of fertilizers under a bounty given by the State, we have 

 ceased to raise that article entirely. The consequence is, that 

 some of our meadows that have heretofore yielded line grasses 

 have been ploughed up, and those fine soils planted to tobacco, 

 so that tobacco, upon the whole, has been an enemy, so to 

 speak, of this other leading branch of agriculture. But still 

 they go along together. Our farmers make out, some of 

 them, by purchasing pressed hay from the region of the 

 Hudson, to supply the wants of their stock. But on the 

 whole, as I said before, we are a prosperous community. 

 Our farmers are deservedly prosperous in these various 

 branches. 



Then we have our manufactures, — the manufacture of 

 whips, the manufacture of cigars, and the manufacture of 

 paper, standing, perhaps, in that order; undoubtedly they 

 do in regard to the number of men employed, and in regard 

 to the amount of capital invested. I will not speak in regard 

 to those manufactures at this time, because it is not neces- 

 sary. The reports that are made from time to time of the 

 industries of the Commonwealth, will sufficiently show the 

 facts to those who are here assembled. 



I wish to say, before closing, in regard to the State Board 

 of Agriculture, that those of us who know it, recognize it as a 

 beneficent institution of the Commonwealth, and as a highly 

 useful institution to the Commonwealth. We read your pro- 

 ceedings in the annual reports made by your excellent Secre- 

 tary, and we are interested, instructed and charmed by them. 

 We are very happy to welcome the Board on this occasion, 

 that we may hear from their own mouths, instead of reading 

 on paper, the words of wisdom which they may present to us 

 in regard to the working of God's providence, and its connec- 

 tion with the agriculture of the Commonwealth of Massachu- 

 setts. 



