ADDRESS, 



9 



a striking example within her own limits of the appro- 

 priation of the land throughout whole counties mainly 

 to some leading branch of agriculture. Norfolk and 

 the Lothians are thus wholly devoted to tillage ; 

 Cheshire and Ayrshire are chiefly dairy counties ; 

 Northumberland and Aberdeenshire excel in grazing and 

 breeding. I have been on farms of hundreds of acres 

 in Norfolk that did not keep a milch cow for the 

 supply of the table, nor raise a calf the season through, 

 so rigidly is a particular combination of grain culture 

 and the feeding of animals for the shambles there 

 carried out. French hens lay the eggs for all England, 

 and many of them are eaten too with bacon or ham 

 packed in Ohio and Illinois. - 



Thus it is her natural conformation, as well as the 

 competition of the West, that has turned the general 

 farming of Massachusetts (that in the vicinity of cities, 

 and in some of the river valleys, being for the moment 

 excluded) mainly in the direction of breeding, grazing 

 and feeding, dairying. In a word, it is grass farming 

 and not grain farming, which constitutes your chief 

 interest. 



A careful examination of the Census returns for 1850 

 and 1860, to which I have devoted some time, together 

 with your State Reports upon the Industry of Massa- 

 chusetts for 1845 and 1855, seems to show that no 

 very great changes have taken place in your farming 

 during the past ten years, — those which have occurred 

 being mainly of the following kind : 



The extent of land rated as "improved" in the State, 

 is reported in 1860 as but one per cent, greater than 

 in 1850, which represents an increase of only about 

 22,000 acres. But the value of farms shows an 



