84 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



renovated, wliere the crops suffer for want of thorough under- 

 drahiing, where a majority of the fruit-trees are upon the de- 

 cline from old age or neglect, where walls and fences require re- 

 building, and the buildings are behind the times and rapidly go- 

 ing to decay from lack of timely repairs. A large portion of 

 the farms are owned by people who have passed the meridian of 

 life ; their children are grown up and gone ; under increasing 

 years and increasing infirmities, what was once to them a pleas- 

 ure has become a burden. Short of reliable and efficient help, 

 they adopt that course of management which involves the least 

 care and labor. These men can tell you of the larger crops this 

 farm has produced, or the greater number of stock which that one 

 kept, and freely admit the backward tendency of their own home- 

 steads. The simple fact that none of the children can be induced 

 to assist in carrying on the farm, causes scores in every county to 

 be thrown upon the market for sale. Everywhere can be seen 

 field after field that does not pay interest, taxes, and cost of main- 

 taining fences. Scarcely a beginning has been made in thorough 

 drainage, and yet the wet lands, which constitute no small por- 

 tion of the area of the State, can be rendered the most profitable 

 of any in proportion to labor. Thousands of acres of hillside, 

 and rough, rocky lands, which have been stripped of their nat- 

 ural product, the trees, and are now kept for a sort of pasturage, 

 would return a higher percentage if they were at once convert- 

 ed into vigorous young forests. It will be seen, taking the State 

 as a whole, that the number of farms which show a steady in- 

 crease in productions is not large, and all that can strictly be 

 called progressive in her agriculture lies in improvement in 

 quality ; that, notwithstanding the numerous appliances for 

 saving labor, the quantity of products has not been increased 

 during the last twenty-five years. 



If any one wishes further evidence on this conclusion, he can 

 turn to the statistical record, and there he will find that the 

 State had in '1845, 52,541 more cattle than the returns show for 

 1865 ; there were 185,509 more of sheep — the falling off being 

 principally in the Merino blood ; there has been a decrease of 

 41,519 in swine. The horses, however, are more numerous, 

 there being a gain of 25,101. This gain may be attributed to 

 farmers substituting horses for oxen, and to the larger numbers 

 required in cities. The corn crop in 1845 was nearly as large 



