15 



lence. The noble Short Horn thrives everywhere that food 

 enough is furnished liim, and although on our pastures he 

 cannot compare in size with his Kentucky cousins, ranch- 

 men seek him here, to improve tiieir herds, because of his 

 greater hardiness. Tlie proper development of some stock, 

 notably coarse-wooled mutton sheep, may require a more 

 generous diet and a milder climate, yet it is an unquestion- 

 able fact that some of the choicest animals that ever lived 

 have been produced here. 



We should have here as fine a show in the pens as we have 

 the halls. Essex county, as 1 have before remarked is in 

 many respects well adapted to stock raising, and the prac- 

 ti ce, which has been so generally adopted, of storing in 

 S ios green crops which can easily be raised in large quan. 

 tities, smooths the way immensely. For five years I have 

 fed ensilage with uniformly good results and on a farm of 

 160 acres, (120 of which is in pasture and woodland) 

 which barely kept 8 cows in 1879-80, I wintered last year 

 25 cows, 10 horses, and 25 sheep. 



Tlie last census shows that notwithstanding the general 

 increase in population in Massachusetts, this increase has 

 been in the large manufacturing towns, the purely farming 

 districts having hardly held their own, some of the more 

 remote parts even showing a decrease. This is not encour- 

 aging from an agricultural standpoint, it does not seem 

 healthy or right from any point. If any words of mine 

 can influence one man "to stand by the old ship/' or secure 



one recruit, I shall feel that I have not spoken in vain. 



Not every man can be a farmer. A man with no 

 mechanical genius or taste can by persistent hard labor 



