FIFTEENTH ANNUAL EEPOET 



SECRETARY 



BOARD or AGRICULTURE. 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Common- 

 wealth of Massachusetts. 



The meteorological features of the past year have been some- 

 what remarkable. They serve to show how powerful an influ- 

 ence the character of the weather, especially that of the growing 

 months, has upon the practical work and the prosperity of the 

 farm. The variations in the seasons, the droughts of one sum- 

 mer, and the rains of another, constitute one of the obstacles 

 against which the farmer has to contend and introduce elements 

 of uncertainty in his calculations which do not exist in a more 

 fixed and uniform climate. 



In a season of unparalleled vegetable growth, the hay crop, 

 so essential to a northern latitude, is, of course, abundant. 

 This, under ordinary circumstances, would reduce the price of 

 that important staple ; but the barns throughout the State had 

 become so completely emptied the last spring that the price of 

 this, as well as other feeding substances, has been strongly 

 maintained. 



The cost of farm labor ranged high throughout the early part 

 of the year, while the frequent interruptions to work made it 

 more than ordinarily difficult to carry on permanent improve- 

 ments without expenditures which the results would not justify. 



