insensibly educated by contact with each other, and especially 

 are the men prepared for the successful prosecution of their 

 business by conversation, by lectures, and by club meetings, 

 which are now common among the farmers ofrMassachusetts. 

 As the villages multiply in number and increase in size, the 

 deserted lands may be again cultivated, and occasionally they 

 will be purchased in large estates and devoted to raising 

 cattle and grain. The tendency at present is clearly in the 

 right direction. 



I venture the suggestion that agriculture in Massachusetts, 

 including market gardening and fruit raising, depends chiefly 

 upon our capacity to gain and keep the lead in the applica- 

 tion of scientific knowledge. In beef, pork, and mutton, in 

 the culture of the grains, in the products of the dairy, we 

 are in competition with the Northwest and the West, even to 

 California, while in horticulture and vegetables we are in 

 competition with the Bermudas and the coasts of the United 

 States, even to the tropical savannas of Florida. This is a 

 serious competition, a perpetual competition. Railways and 

 steamships have contributed to the growth, rapid growth, of 

 cities and towns, but they have widened the field of com- 

 petition and made it everywhere active. It is a competition 

 of life, however, and not of death. The merchant and man- 

 ufacturer must meet it ; the farmer must meet it. Your 

 markets are larger, but the supply and the sources of supply 

 are larger also. 



The three essential things in Massachusetts agriculture, in 

 all its varieties of the field and the garden, are quality of pro- 

 duction, quantity of crops, and economy of culture. Our 

 proficiency in these particulars measures our ability to com- 

 pete with rival producers West and South. Assuming that, 

 as farmers, we have capacity to use what is furnished, we 

 must rely upOn the inventor in the shop, and the scientist in 

 his laboratory, for the chief aid in yet further advancing the 

 art of agriculture. The improvements in tools have ben- 



