SECRETARY'S REPORT. , 187 



ponderance in favor of, or against their cultivation. Probably 

 if it is ever settled, it will be found that location, the cost of 

 land and labor, with the comparative facility of raising the 

 cereals, corn, and other forage crops, will have much to do with 

 its decision. 



Leaving out then root crops, and taking only garden vegeta- 

 bles, our subject is still a most comprehensive and important 

 one. It concerns every man who l^as a rood of land, and has 

 more to do with the health, comfort and thrift of our homes, 

 than most people are willing to admit. Al^iough no advocates 

 of an exclusively vegctffble diet, we firmly believe that a well- 

 kept garden, furnishing a good variety and succession of fruits 

 and vegetables through the season, will be found to lessen 

 materially the expenses of the family, to secure its more 

 uniform and better health, as well as to lubricate the machin- 

 ery of its life generally. We may form some idea of their 

 importance in our social and political economy by a reference 

 to some statistics of Massachusetts in connection with one or 

 two of the other States. It appears from these that until 1860, 

 or near that time, there was but one State in the Union that 

 exceeded Massachusetts in the value of the produce of her mar- 

 ket gardens, and that was New York. She now stands only the 

 third State, New Jersey being the second, and exceeding her by 

 some two hundred thousand dollars. 



The population of Massachusetts in 1850 was 994,514 ; in 

 1860 it was 1,231,066. The rate of increase from 1850 to 1860 

 was 23.79 per cent. 



The increase in the production of her market gardens is as 

 follows : 



In 1840 it was . . . . $283,904 00 

 In 1850 " . . . . 600,020 00 



In 1860 " . . . . 1,397,623 00 



More than doubling every ten years. The increase in the 

 State of New York was in about the same ratio. So it appears 

 that while our population increased for the last twenty years at 

 the rate of less than twenty-five per cent, in ten years, the pro- 

 duction of our market gardens has increased one hundred per 

 cent, in the same time. 



