FARMING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 85 



as that of 1865, the difference being only 1,470 bushels ; the in- 

 crease in barley is 16,664. The hay crop shows an increase of 

 19,189 tons, while, during the same period, wheat fell off 7,206 ; 

 in rye, the decrease is 176,512 bushels ; in oats, 572,162 ; in 

 potatoes, 940,575 bushels. In 1845 there was made 3,410,045 

 pounds of cheese more than in 1865. The butter sold from our 

 farms at the latter date was 3,892,766 pounds, which is nearly 

 four million pounds less than the product in 1845. Some de- 

 crease might be expected in the dairy, since selling milk is tak- 

 ing precedence of butter and cheese-making, but neither the 

 increasing demand for milk, nor the high price of butter and 

 cheese have prevented the number of cows from diminishing, 

 for the returns at the last decade show a loss for the State of 

 9,624, and of this the share of the leading dairy county, Wor- 

 cester, was 3,890. 



It may be suggested that this diminution in stock and staple 

 products may partly be accounted for by the increasing attention 

 given to horticulture, the raising of raw material for our manu- 

 factures, and by the absorption of some of our best land into 

 house-lots and suburban residences. In answer to this, it may 

 be stated that the market gardens are mostly confined to the 

 three counties encircling Boston, and flax, broom corn and 

 tobacco are the only articles raised that are not strictly edible, 

 and that the whole area devoted to these three articles, and also 

 to market gardens, is only 9,891 acres, which would not account 

 for the deficiency in the oat crop alone allowing a yield of forty 

 bushels to the acre. 



The question may here well be asked, why, while our com- 

 merce and manufactures have achieved unparalleled success, 

 our agriculture has not likewise prospered ? Is it owing to a 

 lack of enterprise ? The past twenty-five years have in some 

 respects been trying times to our farmers. It has been a period 

 of changes, and to keep up with the advance of the day has re- 

 quired a succession of radical changes — in the kinds of crops — 

 in modes of cropping and cultivation — in the introduction of 

 labor-saving implements — in the system of marketing and means 

 of transportation ; and while striving to keep up with these they 

 have been contending in sharp competition with the first fruits 

 of the richer soil of our younger States. Moreover, a spirit of 

 discontent has prevailed ; said some, the lot of our Pilgrim 



