296 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



were made not only by the press of this State, but especially 

 by writers in other parts of the country and abroad, where they 

 were exultantly circulated, very greatly to our injury. They 

 were exerting a very depressing influence upon the farming 

 community, — leading young men to leave the farm under the 

 impression that it was hopeless to link themselves to failure 

 in a pursuit that was fast losing its relative importance among 

 the great industries of the Commonwealth, and where the 

 avenues to prosperity appeared to be rapidly closing up. 



In the report referred to, on pp. 7 and 312, I showed con- 

 clusively that the census of 1870, the ninth of the series, was 

 not only grossly inaccurate, so far as it applied to Massachu- 

 setts, but so mischievously careless and injurious to the 

 interests and reputation of the State as almost to deserve the 

 term fraudulent; and that it di'd not offer us even an approx- 

 imation to the truth. I stated that, "So far from there being 

 any reason for circulating the falsehood that there had been 

 any decline, the aggregate value of the farm production of the 

 State has largely increased, even though a few of the old staple 

 crops may have fallen off." And again : "The census of 1850, 

 for example, states the number of farms as 34,0G9 ; that of 

 1860, as 35,601 ; while that of 1870 gives only 26,500,— a 

 difference of 9,101 farms since 1860. Now, apart from the 

 fact that the same causes were operating to increase the num- 

 ber from 1860 to 1870, as from 1850 to 1860, we know that 

 the selectmen and assessors of taxes in each town are far more 

 likely to be correct than the United States marshals. According 

 to the Statistics of Industry of 1865, the number of farms in 

 the State at that date was 46,904, which would leave the 

 number of farms that were overlooked in gathering the census 

 of 1870 still greater than that stated, or more than 20,000 

 instead of 9,000." 



In the same report it was also stated that, " The large 

 number of farms entirely overlooked in gathering the statistics 

 of the census, vitiated all the agricultural returns of every 

 description. That such is the case appears from the fact that 

 the total number of acres recognized in the census, including 

 woodland and all improved and unimproved land of every 

 kind, is little more than half the actual acreage of the State. 

 The area of the State, for instance, is about five millions of 



