86 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Fathers did not fall in a goodly place ; the promised land of the 

 western world lies beyond in the great valley ; why delve we 

 here amid these many hills, rocky fields and stertile plains ? let 

 us go and possess it ! Others said, money can be made easier 

 and quicker in the factory, the workshop, or counting-room, and 

 we will go thither ! Our business men have spoken contemptu- 

 ously of tilling such a soil as this ; Eastern capitalists largely 

 interested in Western railroads and in the sale of lands, have 

 urged on emigration from our rural districts ; every man thus 

 withdrawn from the farm is a material loss to our agriculture. 

 When the ranks of our farmers have been continually thinned 

 by the removal of the young and robust, what could our old men 

 do ? Where was the encouragement for them to remodel their 

 buildings, buy labor-saving machines, smooth down their rough 

 fields, underdrain and adopt all the new improvements of the 

 day ? Where would our manufactures be were it not for the 

 young men crowding into every department ready and willing 

 to rise early and bear the heavier burdens, and who have the 

 courage and spirit to try the new projects ? If under such cir- 

 cumstances our farms have held their own, they have done well ; 

 if they show a decrease it is not surprising. 



It is well known that the production of food in our State is 

 not equal to the consumption ; and from the foregoing it will 

 be seen we are less and less able to meet the demands of the 

 yearly increasing population. Our markets are so regularly 

 supplied at all seasons of the year that it is difficult to tell how 

 much comes from within and how much from without the State. 

 A simple enumeration of the sum total, either in pounds, bush- 

 els, acres, or their value in dollars, does not always give a full 

 idea of the quantity our farmers have to sell, or the real pro- 

 ductiveness of the soil. A few equalizations and comparisons, 

 however, may help in attaining an approximate idea. The 

 wheat crop for 1865 gives but a trifle over one quart to each in- 

 habitant, and if to the wheat the rye, barley and buckwheat be 

 added, it would give 11.4 quarts to each person ; still add to 

 this the whole corn crop, and there would be 1.9 bushels of 

 grain whereof each inhabitant could make his bread. The po- 

 tato crop, divided equally, gives three bushels to each ; but of 

 the whole crop, so small a portion comes to market that our 

 cities must obtain a part of their supply from other States. 



