THIRTEENTH ANNUAL EEPOET 



OF THE 



SECRETARY 



OF THE 



BOARD or AGRICULTURE. 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commof^ 



wealth of Massachusetts. 



The past season has been somewhat pecuhar. The spring 

 opened with abundant rains, so well distributed in point of time 

 as to produce a luxuriant yield of early grass and to give the 

 other farm crops a vigorous start ; but a drought succeeded, of 

 unprecedented severity, so as materially to check the growth of 

 many plants, and particularly the after-grass in our fields, and 

 the root-crops, so important as auxiliaries ip the fall and winter 

 feeding of stock. 



But notwithstanding these vicissitudes, the year has been one 

 of prosperity on the farm, owing, in part, to the high prices 

 obtained for farm produce of every kind, and in part to increased 

 economy in the modes of production, while the termination of 

 the war, in the early part of the season, returned many hands 

 to the farm which had been withdrawn for the defence of the 

 libQrties of the country and the perpetuation of the Union, so 

 that a feeling of exultation has pervaded the minds of the 

 farming conomunity to an extent never before known. 



To this cause may be traced, perhaps, the fact that the exhi- 

 bitions of the various agricultural societies have been more 

 numerously attended than ever before, and this attendance has 

 resulted in a pecuniary prosperity to these societies rarely 



