No. I. | REPORT <>l SECRETARY . icxiii 



house culture will soon be a large industry in Massachu- 

 setts. For encouragement, one or two illustrations onl\ of 

 its success in Europe. On the rslc of Guernsey Count Kro 

 potkin says: " As I walked through these glass-roofed gar- 

 dens, which do not know whal failure means, and that yield 

 crop after crop tlirough the spring, summer and autumn, I 

 could not I »u t admire the recent conquests of man." Turn- 

 ing to the Island of Jersey, l he immense greenhouses ol* Mr. 

 Bashford are thus described: " From the outside, these 



1 1 1 1 • • . • LflasS houses ;nnl chimneys look like :i factory i bill, 



when vou enter one of these houses, 900 feel Long and l<> 

 feel wide, and your eye scans the world of green, embel- 

 lished by the reddening grapes or tomatoes, you forgot the 

 ii "Tm ess of (.lie outside view." As to I he results, I cannot 

 better characterize I nan by quoting from a well-known writer 

 on English agriculture, namely, "that the money returns 

 from these 13 acres greatly exceed (hose of an ordinary 

 English farm of 1,300 acres." This is in line with our own 

 work, and illustrates not only its utility but its grand pos- 

 sibilities. 



Goingalong with this enterprise, our experiment slat ion 

 has sterilized the soil in experiment plots to destroy inju- 

 rious bacteria, and this method has been tried by some of 

 the market gardeners near Boston with good results. Once 

 sterilized, with care, the soil will be tree from injurious 



germs for a period of years. This discovery does a way 

 with the possibility of greenhouse failure in growing fruits 

 and \ egetables. 



Thus, developing new resources, leading ill new met. hods 



and demonstrating the practical utility of advanced agricul- 

 ture, is the work of this Hoard a benefit i<» the farmer and 

 to the State. 



This was the design of the Massachusetts State Board of 

 Agriculture, and the report of the year just past demon- 

 strates how fully it, appreciates its mission and how success- 

 ful it has been in its work. And, looking back over its 

 work tor the improvement of agriculture since it was first 

 established, it needs not words to commend it ; in the prog- 

 ress of the last half-century it has been a Leading factor, and 



