deiice that our business is profitable. I have thought, 

 therefore, that we might well occupy the time allotted 

 to this address in considering the general plan of man- 

 agement which an Essex County farmer should adopt, 

 and also some of the difficulties he will meet in the 

 prosecution of his business. 



In the first place we must recognize the fact that our 

 agriculture, especially that of Eastern Massachusetts, is 

 in a transition state, and adapt our business to the 

 wants of the times. The best method for the practice 

 of thirty years ago fails now to yield any profit. The 

 better facilities for transporting produce, the high price 

 of labor, the greater cost of living and high taxes, all 

 combine to render it almost impossible for the farm in 

 Eastern New England to pay a profit under the old sys- 

 tem of culture. The increased price of the great agri- 

 cultural staples does not keep pace with the increased 

 cost of production. The rich lands of the West can 

 and will furnish us with these articles at prices ruinous 

 to an Eastern farmer. So long as the Western farmers 

 can pursue their present course of impoverishing the 

 soil by continual cropping, just so long it is idle for the 

 Eastern farmer to attempt to compete with them. Our 

 soil, originally far less productive than theirs, has al- 

 ready undergone that process, and we must restore in 

 some measure the exhausted elements of fertility before 

 we can expect large returns. 



The cost of cultivation is the principal item of ex- 

 pense that enters into the calculations of a Western far- 

 mer, while here the manure and labor necessary to its 

 application, forms the heaviest charge. The facilities 

 which steam has furnished for cheap and rapid trans- 

 portation, bringing the products of the South and West 



