To His Excellency 



Edwaud Everett, 



Governor of Massachusells : 



Sir, 



I have the honor to lay before you my first Report as Commis- 

 sioner for making an Agricultural Survey of the State. It includes 

 the county of Essex. A report of the survey of the county of 

 Berkshire with incidental matter relating to the culture of silk 

 and beets for sugar, objects now strongly attracting the attention of 

 the farmers of New England is advanced ; and will be submitted 

 with as little delay as possible. The labor of examining and con- 

 densing for the public eye a large number of miscellaneous docu- 

 ments, notes, reports, and communications, can be justly appreciated 

 only by those who have performed it. 



This report for obvious reasons will necessarily be imperfect. 

 Its publication however will much facilitate the further progress of 

 the survey by letting the agricultural public know what information 

 is sought ; and will afford occasion to the farmers to say what they 

 desire should be done. I shall anxiously attend to the indication of 

 their wishes ; and to any suggestions which may be made for the im- 

 provement of the Survey. 



If the Survey results in no other good, it will present, I hope, in 

 their true light the motives which the children of Massachusetts 

 have to stay at home. Her rewards to industry, enterprise, and 

 good conduct, directed by intelligence and under the guidance of 

 temperance and prudence in the cultivation of her soil, are sufficient 

 to satisfy every reasonable desire. Her social institutions and privi- 

 leges are pre-eminent ; and such as no new and unsubdued territory- 

 can expect to reach, under the most favorable circumstances, even 

 in half a century-. 



Filial reverence and affection are honorable traits of character 

 and among the highest duties of religion. Let the children of 

 Massachusetts then love and honor their good old mother. Her 



