®hc ^ommanwcaltl) of i^ta66acl)U0ett6. 



THE SIXTIETH ANNUAL REPORT 



OF THK 



SECRETARY 



OF THK 



State Boaed of Ageicultijee 



To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of 



Massachusetts. 



As the year of 1912 draws to a close, your attention should 

 be called to the manifold signs of progress in rural thought and 

 activity throughout the Commonwealth. The significant fact 

 that the ever-widening wave of interest in things agricultural 

 on the part of the city dweller and the amateur agriculturist, 

 as well as among the rank and file of our farmers, has continued 

 to spread and enlarge and to engulf a larger and still larger 

 proportion of the population of the Commonwealth, is forcibly 

 impressed upon your secretary. Herein, perhaps, lies one of 

 the most important phases of the work of the State Board of 

 Agriculture, — and of all organizations whose aim it is to 

 benefit the people of the State, — the redirecting of thought 

 and action into agricultural channels, that the hills and \alleys 

 of the Old Bay State may be repopulated; that the land may 

 be tilled to a greater extent and with a greater efficiency; 

 and that those crowded dwellers of our cities and manufacturing 

 towns who feel the call of agriculture, and are willing and able 

 to take up the business of farming in the accepted modern and 

 businesslike manner, may avail themselves of the opportunity. 

 Such an awakening is now being experienced. Starting several 



