184 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



[Jan. 



annual of feed of 3,521 pounds to each of their cattle, horses 

 and sheep.* But, if she does stand at the head, is this the 

 best which old Massachusetts can do? I do not think so. 

 Thousands of individual farmers are making better records 

 every year, and there can be no doubt that the average hay 

 producer, having a fair quality of grass land at any point 

 north of Mason and Dixon's line, can double this yield. 



Conditions of Success. 



There are three requisites to high success in the produc- 

 tion of hay, viz. : Maximum crops, superior quality and 

 minimum cost. No one, or even two, of these will insure 

 it. Large crops of high excellence will return little profit 

 if their cost be excessive .« Meagre returns of any quality, 

 at whatever expense produced, are never satisfactory. To 

 vary a little the statement of the proposition, the farmer 

 gets the best net returns from good crops of good quality, 

 raised at the least adequate expense 



Grass is indigenous to most of our New England soils. 

 It grows by culture, it grows by neglect, it springs up spon- 

 taneously everywhere, it is omnipresent. Yet its most 

 profitable production is almost a fine art, requiring a knowl- 

 edge of its composition, its organic construction and its 

 habits of growth. 



Without an intelligent supply of its wants, high success in 

 its culture is as unattainable to the farmer as is good flour to 

 the miller who is ignorant of the peculiar character of his 

 wheat and of the mechanism of his mill. 



In 1880 the hay-consuming animals in Massachusetts were : horses, 59,629; mules 

 and asses, 243; oxen, 14,571; milch cows, 150,435; other cattle, 96,045; sheep, 

 67,979; total, 388,902. The amount of hay raised, 684,679 tons, or 1,369,358,000 

 pounds.— United Stales Census of ISSO. 



