REPORTS OF DELEGATES. 293 



numlier of cows was 14,000 ; and now it is less than 11,000, — 

 cxliiljiting a diminution in every town, except one. This 

 remarkahle clian<^e f'rura products of the dairy to offerings for 

 the sliamblcs — from butter and cheese to beef — suggests the 

 inquiry whether the cause of it is to be found in the evil, which 

 so generally affects agricultural communities elsewhere, — the 

 difficulty of procuring at a reasonable cost, or, indeed, at any 

 cost whatever, competent and reliable help for carrying on the 

 dairy, — or in the relative profitableness of the dairy and of 

 raising and fattening cattle. 



Hampshire County is remarkable, according to the statistics 

 of 1855, in another respect, — the entire absence of swine in 

 sixteen of its towns. This deficiency is now supplied, according 

 to the statistics of 18G0, which represent the possession of more 

 or less swine in every town, and of 4,200 in the whole county. 

 Yet even this number exhibits a diminution of more than thirty 

 per cent, since the census of 1850. 



The inquiry is suggested by these facts whether the statistics 

 of the census of 1855 were correct ; or whether any local and 

 temporary cause then existed for this remarkable abandonment 

 of swine, which has now passed away ? Or does the relative 

 profitableness of pork and beef and other sources of gain to the 

 farmer afford a more satisfactory solution of the inquiry ? 



In 1855 there were in the county 41,000 acres of mowing 

 land, yielding anmially 38,000 tons of English hay. The 

 present census records 42,000 acres, yielding 40,000 tons. 

 Both these statements exhibit the average crop of English hay 

 as less than a ton to the acre. Tlie census of I860 shows, fur- 

 thermore, that, in one town, there has been a diminution of 

 three hundred per cent, in this article, since 1855 ; and, in 

 another town, a gain of one hundred and fifty per cent. 



Of other lands and crops your delegate could not speak, 

 because he could not obtain any authentic record of thoni at the 

 time. 



The point, to which he intended to call the attention of the 

 society, was — the importance of having only accurate and 

 reliable statistics of the agricultural wealth and products of 

 the county made public. And the inquiry he would have 

 suggested is, whether measures niiglit not be adopted iiy the 

 society itself, for the accomplishment of so desirable an o'liject, 

 37* 



