No. 4.] liEPOKT OF SECRETARY. xi 



in some sections. Prices are generally reported very good 

 where the crop was secured undamaged. 



Poultry products brought good prices throughout the year, 

 and with the somewhat reduced prices of grain the profits of 

 the business must have been fully up to any year. Intelligent 

 care for the farm flock would do much to increase the profits 

 on many a farm. There are many instances where a hundred 

 hens pay the entire grocery bill for the year for the family, 

 and that without especial care. Not being a cash crop, the 

 egg returns are not valued at their true worth on many farms. 



There are two points I wish to urge upon the farmers of 

 Massachusetts as worthy of their careful attention. First, 

 it is my firm conviction that a great deal more attention 

 should be paid to the corn crop than has been the case in 

 recent years. Our farmers have fallen too much into the 

 habit of purchasing all the grains that they feed, and have 

 neglected this crop, with the result that when the price of 

 grains leaped up a few years ago, the margins of profit were 

 wiped out for many feeders. In Indian corn we have a crop 

 which can be produced with a fair degree of certainty in 

 New England, and which is valuable for feeding all kinds 

 of farm stock. While its value for. milk production is less 

 than that of many other more concentrated feeds, it can be 

 used to good advantage for the main bulk of the grain ration, 

 being supplemented by boughten grains. The stover forms 

 an excellent roughage for the feeding of most kinds of farm 

 stock, and gives an additional value to the crop as a whole. 

 Care in the selection of seed, planting only those varieties 

 which have been proved to be adapted to the climate, and 

 breeding for increased product and earlier ripening, will do 

 much to improve the total yield. Some of the heaviest crops 

 of early dent corn ever produced have been growm in New 

 England ; and if our farmers will give this crop the careful 

 attention which they do many others of less importance, they 

 will soon have little reason to care whether the prices of 

 grain increase or decrease in the general market. 



Second, the apple crop should receive careful attention. 

 New England fruit does not to-day rank well enough, when 

 compared with that from the west, so that first-class prices 



