27 



BULLETIN OF 



Massachusetts Board of Agriculture. 



THE HAY CROP IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



By Prof. Wsi. P. Brooks, Professor of Agriculture, Massachusetts Agricultural College. 



In Massachusetts the relative importance of the hay crop is much 

 greater than in the United States as a whole. This crop occupies nearly 

 three-fourths of the improved area of our farms. The last State census 

 reports the total improved area in farms as 902.000 acres. The hay 

 crop occupies 660,000 acres. Large as is this proportion, the tremen- 

 dously preponderating importance of grass as a crop becomes yet more 

 evident when we consider the area devoted to pasturage, which the last 

 State census reports to have been 1,119,000 acres. There is, of course, 

 little doubt that much of this so-called pasture was occupied to a con- 

 siderable extent with trees, bushes, ferns and numerous other forms of 

 vegetation other than grass. The total annual value of the farm prod- 

 ucts of Massachusetts, according to the last State census, was 152,880,000. 

 The hay crop is reported by the same census to have been worth •?12,- 

 491,000. The value of this crop, therefore, amounted to nearly one- 

 fourth of the value of all our agricultural products combined. A large 

 portion of our dairy products is derived from the pastures, and dairy 

 products are reported by the last census to have amounted to ^16,234,000, 

 or nearly 31 per cent of the total value of our agricultural products. 



The facts to which attention has been called make it perfectly evident 

 that the grass crop is one deserving careful consideration. It occupies 

 an exceedingly large proportion of our total area, and anything which 

 can be done to increase the product will do much to increase the pros- 

 perity of our farmers. Great as is the relative importance of the grass 

 crop at the present time, its relative prominence shows a tendency to 

 increase. This tendency is due in considerable measure to the laot that 

 the production of the grass crop involves relatively little labor ; and, in 

 periods of general prosperity especially, it seems to be increasingly 

 difficult for the farmers to secure satisfactory help. Many of them, 

 therefore, are increasing the already large proportion of their farms 

 devoted to grass. 



Our numerous cities and villages, while using considerable hay im- 

 ported from the west and Canada, furnish good markets for the surplus 



