MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 401 



public good in times of danger and peril. Agriculture is the 

 prominent pursuit. It employs more capital and labor than all 

 other trades and professions, and in proportion as it prospers, 

 will the welfare of the community advance. But how has 

 agriculture progressed with other callings in Massachusetts? 



Facts warrant the assertion that there is occasion for great 

 improvement. This is apparent from the rapid increase of 

 population and the comparative decrease of agricultural pro- 

 ducts in this State. By the report of the valuation committee, 

 it appears that although since 1840 there have been added to 

 the area under improvement in Massachusetts, 342,000 acres of 

 land, which at that time were classed as " unimproved,''^ or 

 ^^ unimprovable,''^ — and although the tillage lands have been 

 increased more than forty thousand acres in the same time, 

 yet the grain crops have largely decreased ; and although, dur- 

 ing the same period, the upland and other mowing lands have 

 increased nearly fifteen per cent,, yet the hay crops have been 

 increased only about three per cent. 



In 1840, the population of Massachusetts was 737,700, re- 

 quiring, at six bushels per head, 4,426,200 bushels of bread 

 stuffs for their subsistence. Of this, the soil p''oduced 3,705,261 

 bushels, leaving 700,000 bushels to be supplied by foreign 

 production. But in 1850, the population of the Common- 

 wealth is one million, an increase of thirty-three and two 

 thirds per cent., requiring six millions of bushels of bread stuffs 

 for consumption, and of which she raises but about three mil- 

 lions, leaving three inillions of bushels to be supplied by for- 

 eign production, showing a depreciation in her cereal grains 

 of more than 600,000 bushels ; and should the inhabitants of 

 this Commonwealth increase in the same ratio for the next, as 

 for the last ten years, and without a corresponding increase 

 of the grain crops, we shall, at the close of that term, be de- 

 pendent on foreign sources for nearly ^t/C millions of bushels 

 of bread stuffs annually. 



These facts show that however productive other labor may 

 have been, agriculture has not progressed proportionably with 

 the other arts. It should, therefore, receive the special atten- 

 tion of Massachusetts in self defence ; for unless our farms 

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