THE FORTY-NINTH ANNUAL REPORT 



«>K THE 



SECRETARY 



OK THE 



Board of Agriculture 



To the Senntr unit House of Representatives of the Commonwealth 



of Massachusetts. 



Dr. Pritchett said in an address before the Board of 

 Agriculture : "The farmer must avail himself freely of the 

 results of modern science, if he is to keep pace with the 

 developments in manufactures, in mining and in other 

 directions. A whole series of facts relating to the soil, to 

 the climate, to the life of plants, of insects, to the rotation 

 of crops, are available for his use. The applications of 

 chemistry and botany and geology and zoology bear directly 

 upon his work. . . . The twentieth-century farmer must 

 use his head as well as his hands, if he is to keep step with 

 progress, and this will be apparent if we consider the fact 

 that agriculture has failed to advance as rapidly in the past 

 few decades as manufactures, mining or population. . . . 

 The fact that agriculture has not kept pace either with 

 population or with other branches of industry, is one that 

 concerns not only those who live on farms, but it concerns 

 as well the whole country." 



This is not a new proposition of Dr. Pritchett, — it is a 

 fundamental fact. It was the inspiration to the organiza- 

 tion of this Board fifty years ago. It is the justification of 

 the interest of the State in this Board to-day, and on the 

 same foundation of its productive industries must the wealth 

 of the State and nation rest when the century shall grow 

 old and die. We come to our council chamber to-day in 

 annual session realizing the advance in the years past in 



