ADDRESS. 



By CHARLES L. FLINT, 



Secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture. 



SOME DEFECTS OF NEW ENGLAND FARMING. 

 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen. 



A few weeks ago there appeared, in one of our local country 

 papers, an article under the head of The Farm and the 

 Family, in which the writer after quoting from the last annual 

 Report of the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, 

 goes on to show that farming does not pay. The writer of 

 this article is unknown to me, nor do I know to whom I am 

 indebted for the favor of a copy ; but it came to me with the 

 request endorsed upon the margin, please reply in some public 

 manner. 



As this article contains a good deal of sound common sense, 

 is not very long, and especially as I propose to make it the 

 basis of my remarks upon the present occasion, I trust I shall 

 be pardoned for reading it to you. The article is as follows : — 



The Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture com- 

 mences his report, for the past year, with the following significant words : 

 " The price of farm labor has increased about sixty per cent, since the 

 outbreak of the rebellion, while the cost of living has advanced to a much 

 larger extent ; but the prices of farm produce, though considerably 

 higher than they were five years ago, have not, probably, been enhanced 

 in the same ratio." 



There is abundant truth in this statement. "Wool brings fifty cents 

 a pound, and shoddy cloth $2 or more a yard. A pound of butter will not 

 buy so much sugar as it used to, and with cows at $100 per head, and 

 labor and cost of living 60 per cent, higher, it costs one-half more to 



