274 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



FUTURE OF MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



BY N. I. BOWDITCH, FRAMINGHAM. 



Members of the State Board of Agriculture, at this time 

 we are called upon to look well to the future of the agricult- 

 ure of Massachusetts. 



Massachusetts cannot rightly be called an agricultural 

 State, but why should she not take the lead in the science of 

 agriculture, as she does in other things, and be looked up to 

 by the other States of the Union ? 



This Board has done great work, and is doing it now ; but 

 I think you will agree with me that the work can be broader 

 and more improved, and that it should be undertaken at 

 once. The reorganization of this Board has got to come in 

 the near future, to bring it down to a smaller number, in 

 order that its work may be broadened and improved. To 

 this end I would suggest the following plan : — 



As the State is divided into thirteen districts to-day, ac- 

 cording to population, let each agricultural society in a dis- 

 trict send one representative to some central chosen point, 

 and all the representatives from the different societies there 

 assembled choose one to represent their societies on the 

 Board of Agriculture. In this way there would be elected 

 thirteen members of the Board. Add to these, either by 

 election of the Board or appointment by the governor, six 

 specialists, viz., a chemist, an entomologist, a botanist, a 

 veterinarian, an engineer and an ornithologist. These should 

 be ex-officio members of the Board, beside the governor and 

 the president of the Agricultural College, as at present, and 

 also a secretary, who should be elected by the Board. In 

 this way you would have a board of thirteen members, six 

 specialists, with the governor, secretary and president of the 

 Agricultural College, making, all told, twenty-two members. 



