SECRETARY'S REPORT. 299 



There is an cstablisliment for the rQanufactiire of sirup at 

 Westbrook, Hatfield, and also one at Deerfield. With regard to 

 the latter, I have the following facts: The cost of mill, boilers, 

 &c., is about 8500. It has made nearly five hundred gallons of 

 sirup. The yield is from twenty-five to one hundred and fifty 

 gallons per acre, and the cost of the manufacture thirty cents a 

 gallon. This is a fair result, and affords ground for the presump- 

 tion that the interest may yet become an important one. It 

 would not be more strange than the fact that within seventy- 

 five years the broom business has grown from nothing to its 

 present dimensions. The first half acre raised for brooms was 

 grown in Hadley, by one Levi Dickinson, in 1798. 



On the west side of the river, in the towns of Hatfield, 

 Whately and South Deerfield, the cultivation of the Myatt plant 

 for making wine has been receiving some attention for a few 

 years past. Large stories were told at first of the profitableness 

 of the crop, which a further trial does not seem to justify. At 

 present it seems to be getting out of favor, and I hear that some 

 are ploughing up their plantations in disgust. It seems doubtful 

 whether there is any plant that produces a juice, requiring a 

 large amount of sugar to convert it into a wine that will keep, 

 that should be regarded with much favor. When we can pro- 

 duce a grape with enough of saccharine matter in its juice to 

 preserve it, we may safely go into the business of wine-making 

 without fear of increasing intemperance. 



With regard to stock, the farmers of the Connecticut Valley 

 are differently situated from those in other parts of the State. 

 The scarcity of pasturage, or of such lands as are usually 

 devoted to it, makes the raising of young stock, or indeed the 

 keeping of much stock of any kind through the summer season, 

 rather inconvenient. It is the more common practice here to 

 buy in the fall enough of cows, steers or oxen to consume their 

 produce, and sell again in the spring. 



Within a few years the system of farming has become very 

 much changed. Twenty-five or thirty years since probably very 

 little, if any, grain was brought into this section. On the con- 

 trary, large quantities were taken off to the neighboring towns 

 among the hills, while the amount consumed in making beef 

 and pork was quite as largo as at present. This, at least, is my 

 impression, though I have no data with which to prove it. Since 



