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is issued at the beginning of an exceptional era in Massachusetts agri- 

 culture. . . . While an effort was made to secure the names of parties 

 owning or controlling strictly abandoned farms, the attempt was in- 

 effectual, and we are forced to confess that in our belief there are few 

 such farms in the State. Nevertheless, reports confirm the opinion that 

 there is an enormous amount of land lying idle or partly deserted, and 

 that many farms are not worked to anywhere near their limit. 



(4) Improved tillage makes farming prospects better. Mas- 

 sachusetts land is remarkably responsive to better farming. 

 Land once tilled but now lying for the moment largely or even 

 entirely neglected may well be regarded as a sign post of dor- 

 mant fertility. Such land is simply resting. Striking examples 

 of this fact came to view during the investigation the past sum- 

 mer. One instance may suffice for the present purpose, and the 

 fact that this is furnished by the work of a woman whose farm 

 was visited renders it none the less significant. 



The owner of an intensively tilled farm, with a model dairy 

 and well-developed piggery, poultry, market-garden and green- 

 house departments, desired to increase her output. She therefore 

 bought a 20-acre field. This lay next adjoining her own im- 

 proved land, but had not been cropped within the memory of 

 the oldest inhabitant of that section, not for at least sixty 

 years, and probably not for more than a century. It was 

 sparsely strewn with wild grass, gray moss, sweet fern and bay- 

 berry. The former owner had often said that he would keep a 

 yoke of oxen if he only thought he could grow enough feed for 

 them, but he did not believe he could do it. 



The past summer, its first season in tillage at the hands of its 

 present owner, this field yielded 10 acres of rye, straw and 

 grain ; 250 bushels of splendid potatoes ; 80 tons of ensilage, now 

 in the silo ; 2 acres of heavy field corn, at the time of the inter- 

 view standing in the shocks; and 2 tons of sugar pumpkins; 

 while at the time the field was visited there were 8 acres in 

 clover, sown in the rye and showing a good " catch," %-acre 

 in turnips, with the remainder of the field laid down to rye 

 again. 



(5) Increase of investments in land shows that farming is 

 becoming more attractive as a business enterprise. Keen busi- 

 ness sagacity has led a caterer well known in this State to 



