68 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



kind will grow. To do this lie must be industrious, intelligent 

 and prudent, and to secure more than a bare subsistence he 

 needs all the aid which the highest science can afford. 



Notwithstanding the difficulties which beset the farmer in the 

 cooler regions now inhabited by the most civilized nations of the 

 world, the total amount and value of agricultural produce are 

 constantly increasing, and in Great Britain, and doubtless in 

 Massachusetts, this increased product is obtained with a contin- 

 ually diminishing expense, and in many cases with an absolute 

 improvement of the soil. This is the goal towards which a true 

 and perfect system of agriculture should ever be tending — to 

 secure the most desirable and profitable crops with the least 

 expenditure of labor and fertilizers, and, at the same time, 

 to enrich the soil and enhance the salubrity of the climate 

 and the beauty of the landscape. The effect of modern im- 

 provements applied to estates in England during the present 

 century has been to increase their annual value many fold. 

 This result has been attained by thorough tillage, clean culture, 

 under-draining, rotation of crops, cultivation of roots, improved 

 methods of saving and applying manures, use of commercial 

 fertilizers, and proper adaptations of crops to soils and markets, 

 together with the application of horse and steam power to farm 

 work and the invention of many new and useful hand imple- 

 ments ; the irrigation of " water meadows ; ". the introduction 

 of better breeds of animals for specific purposes, and the diffu- 

 sion of knowledge upon topics of interest to the farmer. 



In our own Commonwealth the change for the better is almost 

 as marvellous. How different the appearance of the country 

 to-day from what it was a hundred years ago ! What improve- 

 ments in the variety and quality of farm and garden products ; 

 in the number and perfection of agricultural implements and 

 machines ; in the treatment of swamps and other wild or waste 

 land ; in roads and fences ; in orchards and vineyards ; in the 

 location and construction of farm buildings; in the beauty, 

 usefulness and value, and the care and breeding, of domestic 

 animals ; in the saving and appreciating of fertilizers and in 

 general farm management, and above all in the intelligence and 

 eagerness for progress of the farmers themselves. This in- 

 creased mental activity and desire for information is clearly 

 indicated by the enormous sales of agricultural books of every 



