228 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



quantity of land, expense of culture, &c, were not conformed 

 to, tlie committee do not deem it their duty to award any pre- 

 miums. 



All which is respectfully submitted, 



Obed Brooks, Jr., Chairman. 



October 11, 1854. . 



FARM IMPLEMENTS. 



ESSEX. 



From an Address by R. S. Fay, Esq. 



The first great difficulty which a New England farmer has to 

 contend with, at the present time, is the difficulty of procuring 

 labor, and its excessive dearness. It is a fact, too, strange as 

 it may appear, that the quality of labor has deteriorated in an 

 almost inverse proportion to its demand and price. We pay 

 double the wages of twenty years since, and we receive not 

 much more than half as much labor in return, and at the same 

 time the general products of the farm have not materially ad- 

 vanced in value. This state of things must lead to one of two 

 results : we must cither supply the place of much of this labor 

 by machinery, or we must give up our farms, allowing them to 

 return to their original waste. We are forced to do that 

 which sharp competition and the desire of gain have accom- 

 plished in all other industrial pursuits, by calling to our aid 

 mechanical skill, and applying, wherever it is possible, its labor- 

 saving power to the operations of the farm. Yankee farmers 

 should certainly verify, to the fullest extent, the old proverb, 

 that "necessity is the mother of invention," for there is no 

 place where the dejiiaml upon her prolific powers is more 

 argent than upon New England soil. 



It is a melancholy and mortifying truth, however, that we 

 do not take advantage of the labor-saving implements iu suc- 

 cessful operation elsewhere. Other countries, ami some of our 

 sister states, are before us in this respect. In Great Britain, 



