92 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. [Pub. Doc. 



The FtJTURE of New England Agriculture. 



BY GEO. W. ATIIERTON, LL.D., STATE COLLEGE, PA. 



The subject upon which I have had the honor to be 

 mvited to address this distinguished l)ody is not one re- 

 specting which I can chiim authority to speak as an expert 

 investigator; but as we are all alike ignorant of the future, 

 niy hope is that a correct interpretation of present and past 

 experience may enable us to make some intelligent forecast 

 of the direction in which certain powerful tendencies are 

 likely to continue to operate. If this end can be attained, 

 I venture to indulge the belief that we may thus discern 

 with some clearness the path along which progress and 

 prosperity lie. 



Into every question respecting agriculture two great fac- 

 tors enter, — nature and man. Of these two, nature is 

 constant ; man changes. The seasons come and go in their 

 appointed order. The sun shines, the rains and the refresh- 

 ing dews descend, the breezes blow, and under these vital- 

 izing influences seed-time prepares the way for harvest, 

 and generous Mother Earth yields her increase. There 

 are, especially in respect to climate, of course, exceptions. 

 Too much or too little rain may fall ; a late frost may spoil 

 the first seeding, or an early frost may injure the harvest ; 

 heavy crops may glut the market and lower the price, or a 

 long and severe winter may exhaust the stock of hay and 

 fodder. But, in the long run and in the large view, these 

 variations are, in New England, minor and incidental. The 

 great forces and operations of nature move on, unhasting, 

 unresting, running in the invisil)le groove of unvarying 

 law, but ministering freely to the needs of man and docile 

 to his service. Even the soil itself, if unused, becomes 



