109 



the meadow, both salt and fresh, and they Avould make 

 1.7 tons. The oats and corn fed to the horses alone in 

 daily rations of six quarts would last 156 days. If the 

 horses were divided among the farmers they would have 

 1.9 each ; an equal division of the sheep gives 3.4 ; of 

 swine, 1.3; cows and heifers, 3.7 ; of all the cattle, 

 4.7. Or to proportion the stock to the population, there 

 was in 1865 5.6 people to each head of cattle; 7.4 peo- 

 ple to each sheep, and 20 to each swine. 



In 1860 the United States had 1.5 people to each 

 sheep ; 1.1 to each head of cattle, and less than one to 

 each swine. There are obvious reasons why Massachu- 

 setts does not keep up with some of the younger States 

 in stock raising, but is there any reason why she should 

 fall so far below the average. Our State is not so well 

 stocked as many foreign countries where a great deal is 

 said about land monopoly, excess of population, slow 

 progress, etc. In Great Britain there were 3.5 people to 

 each head of cattle ; France, 2.6 ; Holland, 2.7 ; Swe- 

 den, 2 ; Hussia, 2.9. France had 1-1 population to each 

 head of sheep ; Prussia, 1 ; Spain, less than a unit. 

 Spain had 3.6 people to each head of swine ; Great 

 Britain, 7,6 ; France, 7.1 ; Austria, 4.4. 



Although the excess of the consumption of food over 

 the production is large, no one acquainted with success- 

 ful farming will doubt that the present, and even a lar- 

 ger population could be furnished with food from our 

 soil, when its real productiveness has not yet been devel- 

 oped; thousands of acres of our best land lie waste, 

 or yielding at most a stunted growth of wood, or a little 

 coarse hay and sour grass. Our farmers returned nearly 

 an acre of unimproved land for every acre of improved. 

 Now if one-twentieth of the unimproved land were 



