104 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The prosperity of New Eugiancl as a whole may be measured 

 by its appropriations derived from self-imposed taxation and ex- 

 pended for education. The report of the commissioner of educa- 

 tion for 1888 shows that the amount raised by taxes in New 

 England, in proportion to the number of children of the school- 

 going age, was far in excess of the amount raised in like man- 

 ner in any other section. The ratio in Massachusetts was to that 

 of the whole country, including Massachusetts, as 2,342 to 690. 

 Again, as to the condition of the agricultural interest, reference 

 must be made to the census of Massachusetts for the year 1885. 

 By that census the agricultural products were valued at $47,000,- 

 000, omitting the excesses, as against $37,000,000 in 1875 and 

 $32,000,000 in 1865. From 1875 to 1885 there was an increase 

 of about 40 per cent in the quantity of products and a decrease of 

 about 30 per cent in values. In 1865 there were 68,000 persons 

 employed in agriculture, in 1875 there were 7.0,000 and in 1885 

 there were 77,000, of whom more than one-half were proprie- 

 tors. The wage earners on the land received something more 

 than $6,000,000 in the year 1885. . . . 



Another evidence of prosperity is found in the fact that the 

 debts of the New England States were reduced by payment from 

 $26,830,733.35 in 1880 to $7,287,688.36 in 1890, and that three 

 of the six States are free from debt. 



I do not overlook the fact that every such readjustment of 

 industry as has been going on and is still in progress works 

 unevenly in individual cases. The very tact that we have to 

 deal with averages })resupposes the existence of cases more 

 or less numerous below, as well as above that average level. 

 No social or industrial change, however slight, can occur 

 without involving some degree of wear and friction. The 

 mere sense of being in an unfamiliar situation, of doing 

 unaccustomed things and falling into new relationships, 

 involves, for many persons, a degree of mental and moral 

 hardship which often amounts to real sufiering; and when 

 such changes continue over a long course of years, involving 

 not merely slight personal readjustments but the severing of 

 old ties, the breaking of old associations, an entire change 

 of employment, the sense of hardship and suffering and in- 

 jury are immeasurably increased, and many succumb to the 

 strain, like the worn-out strasfglers of an army. 



Nevertheless, if, looking again at the industrial host as an 



