viii BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



upon their .silos, Avhethor the cost of winter feed will more 

 than offset the effects of the good hay crop and excellent 

 pasturage of the j^ear. Poultry products have sold well, but 

 the; cost of production has also been above the average. Of 

 special crops of importance, tobacco was rather a poor crop 

 and onions a practical failure in most localities. 



That the agriculture of ^Massachusetts is of importance in 

 the economy of the Commonwealtli is shown by the latest 

 availal)le figures regarding the value of farm products, those 

 for l.SiM), which show that our 37,715 farms gave, during 

 that year, products to the value of $42,298,274, or over 

 $1,100 from each farm; or, to put it in another waj^ the 

 average value of these farms being $4,189 each, the value of 

 their annual production in 1899 averaged something over 25 

 per cent of the value of the farms themselves. In the same 

 year a comparison with the great agricultural States of Iowa, 

 Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois and Missouri, shoAvs 

 that, in the production of flowers and plants, nursery prod- 

 ucts, onions, potatoes, miscellaneous vegetables, tobacco, 

 hay and forage crops, orchard fruits and small fruits, Massa- 

 chusetts excels all these States in the average value of prod- 

 ucts per acre in all these classes, the margin being substantial 

 in each case and more than twofold in many instances. 



It is to the service of those engaged in this great produc- 

 ing industrj^ that this Board is })rimarily devoted, although 

 its work and teachings are so varied as to be of value also to 

 the owner of the pleasure garden and to the mechanic Avith 

 his back-yard A'-egetable garden. That its work has been of 

 service in the past is shoAvn by the stead}' advance in agri- 

 culture during the fifty years of its existence. To-day new 

 fields are opening for its activity, and in the line of forestry, 

 insect control and other branches of modern aijriculture 

 Avork Avill be found for us, as Avell as in the more familiar 

 lines already committed to our charge. 



The various branches of the work of the Board are each 

 taken up in the later portions of this report, and under some 

 of these headings Avill be found suggestions for future 

 improvement, as Avell as reports of the accomplishments of 

 the 3'ear. 



