STOCK-HUSBANDRY IX MASSACHUSETTS. 177 



the short-horns arc ready to pay certain and liberal dividends 

 to stock-raisers and dairy farmers, even in old Massachusetts. 



The CiiAiRMA>r. I do not like to tax your credulity, gen- 

 tlemen, but I announce that you will now bo addressed by 

 an agricultural editor who knows something about farming. 

 I have the pleasure of introducing Mr. A. W.^ Cheever, of 

 '' The New Endand Farmer." 



STOCK-HUSBANDRY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



BY A, AV. CHEEVER OF DEDHAM. 



Mr. PreMdent and Members of the Board of Agriculture : 



Ladies AND Gentlemen, — In accepting again an invita- 

 tion from your Secretary to contribute a few thoughts for the 

 consideration of the farmers of Massachusetts, I have been 

 asked to speak upon the importance of stock-husbandry in 

 Massachusetts, particularly of the dairy, and also of the 

 merits of polled cattle as compared with the other well 

 known and more popular breeds. 



In a report of the Secretary of one of our western Boards 

 of Agriculture, I find these words: "Immigration is our 

 great necessity, and nothing of labor or money should be 

 spared, the expenditure of which will bring to us rapid im- 

 migration of the hiofhest order of intellio:ence and moral 

 worth. We believe no other means to this end will be found 

 so economical or so efficient, as the world-wide publication 

 of authenticated facts, faithfully and truthfully collected." 



Through the liberality of the legislature, that secretary 

 was enabled to send thousands of copies of his report through 

 these old eastern States for free distribution. A few years 

 later the secretary of that same Board of Agriculture was 

 enabled to report that the population of his State had in- 

 creased during the preceding ten years threefold, the value 

 of the live stock had incixeased in the same ratio, while the 

 number of acres under cultivation had increased nearly five- 

 fold, and he believed that this great gain in the wealth and 

 prosperity of the State was largely due to the influence of 

 their Board of Agriculture and its published reports, which 

 had been so freely spread over the country. 



