330 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



her numerous agricultural societies, and her thousands of 

 active and intelligent farmers. 



While Massachusetts agriculture at the present time may 

 not have a very great influence on the whole country, to us, 

 citizens of the Commonwealth, it is much, and its decline, if 

 there were any, would be serious ; as the widow of an old 

 Scotch laird, who was beheaded for being " out in '45," said, 

 of his misfortune, " 'twas nae gret thing of a held, but 'twas 

 a sair loss to him." Our missions are different : they of the 

 larger States are as foreign missionaries, to send provisions 

 throughout all the world ; we, as home missionaries, are to 

 feed our own and fit them for service elsewhere, — a limited 

 field, but quite as important. 



Our population is now two millions, — more than twice 

 what it was in 1845, and requiring, of course, food in the 

 same proportion. 



While, to be sure, the larger part of the staple provisions, 

 the meats, and of all the cereals, is supplied to us from the 

 Western producing States and Territories, there is yet 

 necessary, for the use of the consumers, who are to the pro- 

 ducing farmers more than twenty-five to one, a very great 

 amount of food material to be grown by the agriculturists 

 of our own State, and which is proportionately increased 

 much beyond the advance of the population. 



There are various ways by which the condition of our 

 farming at present, as compared with past years, may be 

 judged. The first — the most natural one, and the most un- 

 certain and delusive — is the individual view taken by a 

 superficial observer, who judges from the daily talk of 

 farmers, and hears their grumbling of hard times ; low 

 prices for what they sell, high prices for what they buy ; the 

 difficulty of procuring labor; their everlasting complaints 

 against the administration of the seasons ; of edacious taxes ; 

 diseases in animals and crops, and the horrors of the insect 

 world, in which are found, it is said, over two hundred thou- 

 sand species, all of which the farmer believes are arrayed 

 against him, and mostly in active operation. Trustingly to 

 listen to these environments of the farmer, one would hardly 

 suppose he had a comfortable home, and from the products 

 of his farm enough for himself and family to eat, drink and 



