106 



1845. Some decrease might be expected in the dairy., 

 since selling milk is taking precedence of butter and' 

 cheese making, but neither the increasing demand for 

 milk, nor the high price of butter and cheese have pre- 

 vented the number of cows from diminishing, for the re- 

 turns at the last decade show a loss for the State of t),- 

 624, and of this the share of the leading dairy county^ 

 Worcester, was 3,890. 



It may be suggested that this diminution in stock antl 

 staple products may partly be accounted for by the in- 

 creasing attention given to Horticulture, the raising of 

 raw material for our manufactures, and by the absorption* 

 of some of our best land into house lots and suburban 

 residences. In answer to this — it may be stated that 

 the market gardens are mostly confined to the three 

 counties encircling Boston, and flax, broom corn and 

 tobacco are the only articles raised that are not strictly 

 edible, and that the whole area devoted to these three 

 articles, and also to market gardens, is only 9,891 acres^ 

 which would not account for the deficiency in the oat 

 crop alone, allowing a yield of forty bushels to the acre. 

 The question may here well be asked, why, while our 

 commerce and manufactures have achieved unparalleled 

 success, our agriculture has not likewise prospered ? Is; 

 it owing to a lack of enterprise ? The past twenty-five 

 years have in some respects l)een trying times to our 

 farmers. It has been a period of changes, and to keep 

 up with the advance of the day has required a succes- 

 sion of radical changes — in the kinds of crops — in 

 modes of cropping and cultivation — in the introduction! 

 of labor-saving implements — in the system of market- 

 ing and means of transportation ; and while striving to- 

 keep up with these they liave been contending in sharp 



