102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



per cent, but an increase of valuation amounting to 21.11 

 per cent. The decrease in Rhode Island was 15.28 per 

 cent, but the increase in valuation was 31.83 per cent; 

 while Connecticut, with a decrease of 5.47 per cent in 

 acreage, gained 31.63 per cent in valuation. A foct which 

 throws much suggestive light upon the real condition of 

 farmers in New England, and explains their stability and 

 independence, is that they are so largely owners of the 

 farms which they cultivate. In Maine 94.56 per cent of 

 all the fjirms in the State are cultivated by owners ; in New 

 Hampshire, 92.03 per cent; in Vermont, 85.40 per cent; in 

 Massachusetts, 90.70 per cent; in Rhode Island, 81.27 per 

 cent; and in Connecticut, 88.46 per cent. This is consider- 

 ably above the average for the whole United States, which is 

 71.63 per cent. 



At the risk of wearying your patience, I must mention 

 one other item of agricultural advancement, which is not 

 only highly significant in itself, but furnishes an explana- 

 tion of many of the changes that have taken place in 

 methods of farm management. I have already mentioned 

 the astonishing increase in the value of machinery and im- 

 plements in use on the farms of the entire country. Physi- 

 cal conditions in New England do not admit of the use of 

 such appliances to the same extent as on the smooth plains 

 and prairies of the west, but they have come to be a very 

 large factor in farming operations here as well as there. 

 Their total value in the six States increased from $12,937,- 

 390 in 1850 to $23,783,288 in 1890, —a gain of 84.26 per 

 cent. The actual value and the percentage of increase was 

 distril)uted amcmg the States as follows : Maine showed an 

 increase from $2,284,557 to $5,499,413, or 140.72 per cent; 

 New Hampshire, from $2,314,125 to $3,594,850, or 55.34 

 per cent; Vermont, from $2,739,282 to $4,733,560, or 

 72.81 per cent; Massachusetts, from $3,209,584 to $5,- 

 938,940, or 85.04 per cent; Rhode Island, from $497,201 

 to $941,030, or 89.27 per cent; and Connecticut, from $1,- 

 892,541 to $3,075,495, or 62.50 per cent. I fear I ought 

 to offer an apology for presenting so many statements in 

 the form of statistics, but they seem to me, like the massed 

 columns of an army, to go straight to their conclusion 



