CHANGES IN AGRICULTURE. 31 



CHANGES IN MASSACHUSETTS AGRI- 

 CULTURE. 



From an Address before the Norfolk Agricultural Society. 



BY GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. 



Farming, in the country sense of the word, is no longer 

 a leading pursuit among you, and its relative importance 

 diminishes each year. The farms have been divided for 

 country residences and market-gardens, and the culture of 

 the great staples of agriculture has been transferred to the 

 interior of the State, and to remote sections of the Union. 

 Land is too valuable for corn, grass, wheat, cattle in great 

 herds, and even for the coarser and least valuable fruits and 

 vegetables. 



The changes of which I speak will continue, and coincident 

 with them are two other changes calculated to exert consider- 

 able influence upon the fortunes and character of the people. 

 There is a disposition among the farmers to abandon the habit 

 of isolated family life, and to gather in or near the villages. 

 This change springs not merely from the discomfort and 

 exposure of isolated homes, but also from an increasing desire 

 for education, for the education furnished by society, as well 

 as that furnished by the schools. In the expressive language 

 of the country people, the "outskirts" are to be deserted, 

 and farms will be converted into pastures or surrendered to 

 forests. These changes are not to be deplored. 



Generally the best lands are in or near the villages of the 

 farming towns, the selection of the site for the "meeting- 

 house " having been the consequence of the selection of lands 

 by the "most discreet of the freemen," which meant those 



