No. 4.] REPORT OF SECRETARY. xv 



Dairy animals will come back in this State if our farmers find 

 that they can make a greater profit in them than from other 

 kinds of agriculture, but it would be the height of folly to 

 attempt to impose on this State the production of a commodity 

 which farmers in other States are willing to produce at a loss 

 or may possibly produce cheaper. 



The inroad of the foot-and-mouth disease has resulted in the 

 killing of about 1,200 dairy animals in the State, but this 

 condition has not materially affected the dairy situation. 



The agricultural history of Massachusetts would show an 

 ever changing type of farming. We learn a great deal about 

 the loss of dairy cattle in our State, and the consequent re- 

 duction in the amount of milk produced. Some people are 

 inclined to look upon this as the whole agricultural question, 

 not realizing that beginning a few years after the first settle- 

 ments were made, Massachusetts agriculture has undergone 

 great changes. The great crops of grain, beef and mutton 

 have been grown here in sufficient quantities to feed our people, 

 but as new lands were opened up and cheaper transportation 

 became possible, these crops followed the lines of the cheapest 

 production and forced our people to grow something else. So 

 it has become with dairying; the farmers of Vermont, New 

 Hampshire, Maine and Canada feel that they can produce milk 

 at prices which dealers are willing to pay, therefore if we 

 cannot meet these prices, we shall have to go into other lines 

 of agriculture, or produce milk of a higher quality for which 

 our people must pay a fair price commensurate with the cost 

 of production. 



State Ownership of Stallions. 



Massachusetts has never been a great horse-breeding State, 

 but we have got to come to it sooner or later, and now that 

 the terrible war in Europe is fast depleting the horses of the 

 countries engaged in breeding them, and these countries are 

 drawing heavily upon the United States to keep their stock re- 

 plenished, a more fitting time for us to attempt a revival of this 

 important industry could not be found. 



Undoubtedly the principal drawback to horse breeding here 

 is the lack of stallions, and the practical problems surrounding 



