34 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



The extent of land rated as " improved " in the State, is 

 reported in 1860 as but one per cent, greater than in 1850, 

 which represents an increase of only about 22,000 acres. But 

 the value of farms sliows an advance much larger, (13 per 

 cent.,) proving that farm property is enhancing among you, 

 probably owing to an increased revenue yielded by it, arising 

 partly from larger production and partly from larger prices, at 

 the latter period than at the former. The surface under tillage 

 for the grains (wheat, rye, Indian corn, oats and barley) was 

 somewhat smaller even, in 1860 than in 1850 — a decrease, in 

 the aggregate, of about three per cent. It is presumable that 

 this slight diminution is due to the occupation of lands formerly 

 in grain, for the growth of the garden and orchard products 

 demanded by your cities, and of such other crops as tobacco, 

 which has grown to its present importance in your State, almost 

 entirely within ten, if not within five or sis years past. An 

 increase in the hay crop, shows that the surface mown has also 

 been extended ; more hay is probably sold in the cities now 

 than ten years ago, and the improvements of modern machinery 

 — the best mowers, and hay spreaders and hay rakes of the 

 present day, render this sometimes one of the least costly and 

 most profitable crops that can be grown on a large scale, in the 

 neighborhood of good markets. 



Nor can we proceed without remarking that to the inventors 

 and manufacturers of improved farm implements and machin- 

 ery, as well as to the agricultural periodicals and exhibitions by 

 which they have been made known to the public, is to be 

 ascribed much of the progress our agriculture is making from 

 year to year, and no small share of the ability we have shown 

 to carry on a war and at the same time produce crops, that are 

 both of almost unprecedented magnitude. The value of the 

 implements and machinery employed 'upon the farms of this 

 State, is reported as twenty per cent, greater in 1860, than in 

 1850, for each acre of " improved land " — an increase which is 

 likely to be below, rather than above the truth, and which has 

 certainly gone on since 1860 in a rapidly enlarging ratio. 



Coming now to the live stock, we have to note a consider- 

 able increase in milch cows, while a slight increase in "butter 

 and a falling off in cheese, show that a smaller amount of milk 

 produced was manufactured in these two items, leaving some- 



