18 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



year towards bringing up the productions of their well-worn 

 acres. Better cultivation and increased fertility are the aims. 

 And for increasing fertility, despite all the arguments for chem- 

 icals and compounds, and the importation of guanos and phos- 

 phates, the main reliance is and must ever be, that too often 

 neglected and abused material, animal manure. Nothing equals 

 good barn-yard manure in improving both the chemical and 

 mechanical condition of the soil. To add to the manure 

 made upon the farm is, therefore, a leading interest with 

 every good ftirmer. To this end the live stock of the farm 

 is increased. But although the main object in keeping 

 domestic animals in New Eno^land is often the makino" of 

 manure, the owner is hardly satisfied unless the stock makes 

 other dividends in return for the expenditure upon it ; and 

 while there are those who still succeed, as of old, in this 

 vicinity, in making beef and pork and mutton and wool at a 

 profit, the great majority prefer to keep milking stock. The 

 good milch cow makes daily a tangible and satisfactory return 

 for her food and care, besides her ofiice as a manure maker, 

 and in these days, in this section, is of all farm animals the 

 surest source of a double profit. 



That this is not mere conjecture, but accepted truth, put 

 in practice by those who know their own interests, is proven 

 by the animal statistics of the Eastern States. I will quote 

 only.ihose of Massachusetts. 



The table shows the milch cows largely increasing in number, 

 especially during the last few years, while " other cattle" have 

 decreased. Massachusetts has fifty thousand more cows than 

 in 1840, and sixty thousand less " other cattle." The im- 

 provement in the quality has also been constant, the average 

 value of a cow has doubled in thirty years, and the total value 

 of this class of stock increased from two and one-half million 



