62 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



ogists, that, ill a recent journey in Europe, he found no pear- 

 orchards equal to our own. While we avoid the wholesale fruit- 

 growing of our ancestors, let us advance to a horticultural and 

 profitable culture of the choicest fruits. 



In the cultivation of field crops I have no doubt we shall 

 make great progress. It seems hardly necessary that I should 

 suggest to you any possibility of improvement in this respect. 

 But we should remember that the carrot and onion and turnip 

 and cabbage crops of but a few towns have become famous in 

 the record of agriculture, and that the care and skill displayed 

 in producing them are confined to a very small section of our 

 little, busy, enterprising Commonwealth. The cultivation of 

 the turnip is yet in its infancy among us — the easiest crop which 

 the farmer can raise — the most useful, considering the amount 

 of nourishment it affords to the acre. I have no doubt that the 

 business of feeding cattle and sheep could be doubled in profit 

 by devotion to this crop, and that the great mortality which 

 often prevails among the latter would be entirely avoided. In 

 the cultivation of corn and the small grains also there will un- 

 doubtedly be great improvement ; and there should be. While 

 Illinois raises 138,000,000 bushels of corn, and Indiana 92,000,- 

 000, and Iowa 49,000,000, and Michigan 15,000,000, and Mary- 

 land 14,000,000, and New Jersey 10,000,000, Massachusetts, 

 with markets at every farmer's door, raises but 2,400,000 bushels. 

 Considering the number of cattle which she feeds, and the 

 amount of corn purchased for food by her people, this amount 

 seems small, and should arrest the attention of the farmer. 



In the construction of farm buildings we are already making 

 great progress. I think the day is gone by when we must listen 

 to arguments against barn-cellars, and when it will be deemed 

 sufficient that a farmer should simply erect a two-story house 

 for his family, without regard to its location or to the care with 

 which the grounds about it should be ornamented with trees 

 and shrubs. 



With regard to our animals, we are undoubtedly on the road 

 to improvement. The charm which has been woven about the 

 old red stock of New England is gradually being broken. 

 Farmers have learned that a good animal is the cheapest, and 

 have turned their attention to the selection of cattle adapted to 

 their various localities. We have learned that the most profit- 



