No. 4.] REPORT OF SECRETARY. ix 



being followed by a very light second crop, which reduced the 

 total production for the year to a very material extent. 



Dairy products brought the same prices as the previous 

 year, and with slight reductions in the price of grain it would 

 seem that profits should have been greater than for some years 

 past, though this was counteracted in a measure by failing 

 pastures, caused by drought, and the increased necessity of 

 feeding grain at the barn. As last year, I would urge that 

 the ])rice of milk is not yet on the level that it should be to 

 enable the producers to secure a fair return for their invest- 

 ment and labor, and that everything should be done to make 

 such an advance a certainty in the near future. The stand- 

 ard set by the demands of the market and the controlling 

 departments of the Commonwealth is a high one, and it must 

 be maintained, so far as the purity and cleanliness of the 

 product are concerned. If it is to be maintained, however, 

 the public must be educated to appreciate the food value of 

 milk and the cost of production of a first-class article, so that 

 they will be willing to pay for the same ; and the contractors 

 must be made, by public opinion, to feel that they have a duty 

 to the producers as well as to the consumers. Strict sanitary 

 regulations are a necessity, from both the business and the 

 health standpoint; but where they entail an additional ex- 

 pense, that expense must not be placed upon the producer, as 

 his margin of profit is already so small as to be in danger of 

 becoming nonexistent. 



Butter has generally brought good prices, and the dairy 

 business, as our fathers knew it, — the production of butter 

 and the breeding of dairy stock, — must have been profitable 

 to those who have pursued it with intelligence and foresight. 

 The demand which exists for good daii'y cows makes their 

 breeding a fine source of income to the farmer Avho is so 

 situated that he finds that line of work congenial and prac- 

 ticable. 



The season was only a fair one for our horticulturists. 

 The apple crop was better than was expected early in the 

 year, and prices have been high; but the fruit was rather 

 small and prematurely ripened, so that its keeping qualities 

 were impaired. Well-cared-for orchards, however, were ex- 



