16 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



of boots and shoes, but she produces as many diftcrent sorts 

 and sizes as can anywhere be found in that industry. She 

 also is first in the manufacture of rubber slioes and of all 

 kinds of rubber goods. 



I have said that slie has no mines or precious metals, but 

 the genius of lier people, their manufactures and enterprise, 

 has made her an important factor in every financial centre 

 of the globe. The entire i)roduct of the manufactures of 

 Massachusetts in the year 11)00 amounted to $1,035,000,000 

 wortli ; and nearly all of the goods manufactured came from 

 hundreds of miles beyond her borders, and she brought the 

 goods here as raw material. There was necessity for ex- 

 ertion for this success, because of the fact that the people 

 realized that where nature had not been lavish it was im- 

 perative for the people to be more energetic and more 

 enterprising. Rocks and sands are a prominent feature of 

 Massachusetts, and yet to-day we are celebrating the fiftieth 

 anniversary of her Board of Agriculture. That, as your 

 chairman has said, was one of the first boards of agriculture 

 established in the United States. It is not for me here to 

 dwell upon the details of these matters, but the bulletin 

 issued by the United States government on the agriculture 

 of Massachusetts reveals some of the reasons for conuratula- 

 tion to-day upon that industry. We have been so accus- 

 tomed to the large statistics of the manufactures to Avhich I 

 have already referred that we hardly realize how man}^ are 

 actually engaged in the farming business which is now under 

 consideration, and how great is the sum of its prodvicts. 

 But, as I gather from a recent bulletin of the United States, 

 the products of the farms of Massachusetts amounted to 

 more than $42,000,000 in value, or about $15 in value for 

 every man, woman and child in the State. It is an industry 

 which affects every home. It is one that perhaps is. more 

 closely connected with the material welfare of the people 

 than is any other. It is also gratifying to learn from the 

 same census bulletin that the })opular idea that the farms of 

 Massachusetts are diminishing and that they are becom- 

 ing the property of summer residents for use for vacation 

 .purposes is also not well founded on fact ; for I find from 



