330 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



from our own agricultural industry, or from some other section 

 of the country. Shall we go away for our vegetables ? We 

 need not to find a soil that will produce them bountifully, and 

 being grown so near a market, they will find their way thither 

 in a perfectly fresh and healthy condition. And if the plant- 

 food that goes to waste in our cities, could be turned back to 

 increase the fertility of the soil, we should be blessed with far 

 richer harvests. Shall we abandon fruit in Massachusetts ? 

 Who that has visited our agricultural fairs in the various sec- 

 tions of the State, and beheld the various varieties of fruit 

 exhibited, with a richness of flavor unsurpassed, and in quanti- 

 ties sufficient to satisfy the most fastidious, will say we need go 

 beyond our own borders for fruits adapted to our climate ? 



If we turn our attention to the dairy, we find many sections 

 as well adapted to the production of milk, butter and cheese, as 

 any part of the habitable globe. The supply of milk must be 

 produced within a reasonable distance of the place where it is 

 consumed, so that the Eastern cities cannot go West beyond the 

 borders of our own State for their supply. And even if this 

 could be done, would it be a wise policy for the producer or 

 consumer to pay the expense of transporting those articles of 

 food which can just as well be produced in his own immediate 

 vicinity ? As the manufacturing, mechanical and mercantile 

 population increases, the question comes with great force, 

 whether the farming community should not redouble their 

 diligence to keep pace with this increasing demand for the 

 products of the soil ? I have spoken of milk, but I have yet to 

 learn that better butter or cheese can be found than is made 

 in our own State. In those portions where the feed is abun- 

 dant, and pure water never exhausted, cheese factories have 

 come up and arc rapidly increasing, and the quantity of cheese 

 from them is annually increasing. With these facilities, and a 

 ready demand for all that can be produced, is rtiere any reason 

 for tiie oft-repeated saying, that " farming won't pay ? " If the 

 farming interest does not pay, what business does ? If the 

 agricultural interests are checked, where is the prosperity of 

 other branches of industry ; and from whence comes the revenue 

 of the country, if not directly or indirectly from the soil ? 



A division of labor, or specialties in farming, renders it more 



