4 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



England. What crop will you plant there of which you cannot 

 raise more here than there to the acre ? Is it corn ? Compare 

 Massachusetts, in 18G7, with Ohio and Texas, to see why our 

 sons should go either West or South to raise corn. In 1867, 

 corn here averaged thirty-five bushels to the acre ; in Ohio 

 twenty-eight bushels to the acre ; Texas twenty-eight bushels 

 to the acre. So that, in fact, the average worth of an acre of 

 corn in Massachusetts was from $50 to $54 ; in Ohio, $20 to 

 $23, and in Texas $17 to $22. Is it wheat? The average 

 yield of wheat in Massachusetts was sixteen bushels to the acre ; 

 in Ohio, fifteen ; in Texas, nine. While the wheat of Massa- 

 chusetts was worth $2.75 a bushel, or 814 to the acre, the wheat 

 of Ohio was worth $2.40 per bushel, or $27 to $30 to the acre ; 

 and of Texas, ninety cents a bushel, or $17 to $18 to the acre. 

 Do you wish to raise oats ? Then the average yield of Massa- 

 chusetts was twenty-eight bushels to the acre ; of Ohio thirty ; 

 of Texas twenty-eight. The oats of Massachusetts average 

 seventy-five cents a bushel, year in and year out, while in 

 Texas and Ohio they are forty cents a bushel. Is it tobacco ? 

 The yield of IMassachusetts is 1,100 pounds to the acre ; of Ohio, 

 700, and Virginia, 700 pounds to the acre ; and the cash value 

 of an acre of tobacco in Massachusetts is quite treble in value 

 that of an acre in the great tobacco State of Virginia. Is it hay ? 

 Then we averaged one ton of hay in Massachusetts to one ton 

 and a half in Ohio, and a ton and two thirds in Texas. But for 

 years, when harvested, the hay of Massachusetts was worth $25 

 a ton ; the hay of Ohio from $12 to $15 ; and of Texas from 

 $16 to $18. In no State in the Union are the productions of 

 the soil, acre for acre, as tilled, taking the different kinds, so 

 great in quantity s^s in Massachusetts, and no State where the 

 product of the soil, when harvested, is so valuable. California 

 and Minnesota exceed us in wheat, acre per acre, but fall behind 

 us in other products. The statements I have made are so ac- 

 curate that they are literally borne out by statistics to be pro- 

 cured at any time from the Bureau of Agriculture at Washington. 

 It may be answered, " All that you say is very true, but it 

 costs so much to till an acre of ground in Massachusetts, in com- 

 parison with what you get out of it, that our brother-farmers of 

 the West have great advantage of us." Let us meet that argu- 

 ment, and compare again the same States ; and it will appear, 



