INTRODUCTION. 



The annual report of the jNIassachusetts State Board of 

 Agriculture, known as "Agriculture of Massachusetts," is this 

 year offered to the public in two parts, of which this volume 

 is the first. 



The circulars which are published by the Board from time 

 to time during the year, including the lectures and discussions 

 at the Public Winter Meeting, are of interest to a much larger 

 public than the routine reports of the various phases of the 

 Board's activities. Hitherto, people who wished the informa- 

 tional matter obtained in the circulars have been obliged to 

 take with it routine statistics which they often did not care for. 

 For this reason, beginning with this number. Part I. will 

 comprise the annual report of the secretary, the annual reports 

 of the State Nursery Inspector, State Inspector of Apiaries, 

 State Ornithologist, the Dairy Bureau, the specialist on boys' 

 and girls' agricultural club work, the returns of the agricultural 

 societies and the directory of agricultural organizations. Of 

 Part I. only 1,500 copies will be printed. 



Part II. will contain the lectures and discussions given at the 

 Public Winter ^Meeting and such circulars as may have been 

 issued the previous year. Beginning with this volume, the 

 annual report of the State Forester will not appear with the 

 report of the State Board of Agriculture. 



It is desired to call the attention of persons wishing any 

 particular one of the routine reports to the fact that they are 

 also published as separate pamphlets, and a person desiring 

 the report of the State Inspector of Apiaries, for example, is 

 advised to apply for it in separate form rather than for the 

 whole of Part I. 



Libraries wishing to keep a complete set of these volumes 

 since their institution in 1852 may still do so by getting both 

 parts. 



Editor. 



