CHANGES IN AGRICULTURE. 33 



tion and made it everywhere active. It is a competition of 

 life, however, and not of death. The merchant and manu- 

 facturer must meet it ; the farmer must meet it. Your markets 

 are larger, but the supply and the sources of supply are 

 larger also. 



The three essential things in Massachusetts agriculture, in 

 all its varieties of the field and the garden, are quality of 

 production, quantity of crops, and economy of culture. Our 

 proficiency in these particulars measures our ability to com- 

 pete with rival producers, West and South. Assuming that, 

 as farmers, we have capacity to use what is furnished, we 

 must rely upon the inventor in the shop, and the scientist in 

 his laboratory, for the chief aid in yet further advancing the 

 art of agriculture. The improvements in tools have benefited 

 every branch of agriculture, but more especially the great 

 operations of the prairies, as compared with the culture of 

 the gardens and small fields of the East. These advantages 

 are likely to continue, and they may even increase. On the 

 other hand, I anticipate that the application of science and 

 scientific discoveries to agriculture will inure more largely to 

 the advantages of the East, — to the small farmers and market- 

 gardeners of the country. 



Perhaps I ought, without an if, to say that Prof. Stock- 

 bridge's discovery of a special fertilizer for corn will yield a 

 return to the State in excess of the cost of the Agricultural 

 College ; but as a phrase" of caution, I say, if, after a reasonable 

 trial, which shall decide, among other things, the effect of 

 successive crops upon the productive powers of the soil, the 

 claim now made for it shall be sustained, its value to the 

 State will far exceed the cost of establishing and maintaining 

 the college at Amherst. 



I believe that the average farmers of Massachusetts, and 

 especially dairy farmers, who use corn as feed for cows, have 

 erred in abandoning the crop. Next to hay, the corn crop is 

 of the most value to the farmer whose chief product is milk. 

 It is adapted to many varieties of soil ; it is subject to but 

 few casualties ; almost uniformly it is proof against disease 

 and insects ; the straw, if properly treated, is almost as valu- 

 able as hay, and the grain, after making all proper charges and 

 5* 



