xvi BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan.'89. 



AVhile we are unable to encourage our people by statistics 

 of unusual prosperity, we must put on record our unqualified 

 belief that agriculture, carried on with energy, industry, en- 

 teri^rise and good judgment, will, in the long run, be as 

 successful in Massachusetts as in any other part of the 

 Union. Some of the counties in our State produce nearly 

 or quite as large an aggregate value of agricultural products 

 as any county in the country, while the wonderful produc- 

 tion of manufactured articles by these same counties makes 

 us proud of our State and people. The capacity of our 

 State for increase in agricultural products is enormous. We 

 have besides the woodland 1,569,667 acres of uncultivated 

 land. The cultivated land, 939,260 acres, which includes 

 the mowing lands, according to the census of 1885, 

 produced $47,756,033 worth of agricultural products. 

 The average product per acre of the cultivated land was 

 only about $50, while we have one town in the State that 

 produced $218 worth of agricultural products per cultivated 

 acre. Our uncultivated acres are capable of producing 

 good returns if put to proper uses. We believe that our 

 State would be more powerful and better able to with- 

 stand commercial depression, political upheaval or class 

 dissatisfjiction, with a large and prosperous rural population, 

 and that the greatest good to the greatest number in our 

 State will lead our Legislature to foster and encourage the 

 agriculture of the State. Mindful of past liberality, the 

 farmers of the State are sanguine that those of other callings 

 in this our grand old Commonwealth, will still remember to 

 do justice to those of us engaged in the foundation industry, 



AVILLIAM R. SESSIONS, 

 Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture. 

 Boston, February, 1889. 



