Excerpt from Twentieth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture: With an Appendix Containing Reports of Delegates Appointed to Visit the County Exhibitions, and Also Returns of Finances of the Agricultural Societies, for 1872

The returns of that census wholly omit the production of every description, on more than nine thousand farms of this State, and hence no deductions Of any value as to the present condition Of our agriculture, or Of its condition in 1870 as compared with 1850 or 1860 can be made. The census Of 1850, for example, states the number of farms as that Of 1860, as while that Of 1870 gives only a difference Of farms since 1860. N ow, apart from the fact that the same causes were Operating to increase the num ber from 1860 to 1870, as from 1850 to 1860, we know that the selectmen and assessors Of taxes in each town are far more likely to be correct than the United States marshals, whose jurisdiction extended over many towns, embracing a large area Of country. According to the Statistics of Industry Of 1865, made up from official returns Of the selectmen of each town to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, the number of farms in the State at that date was which would leave the number Of farms that were overlooked in gathering the cen sus Of 1870 still greater than that stated, or more than twenty thousand instead of nine thousand.

But we have a still better means of comparison, so far as a few items are concerned; for the assessors in May, 1870, returned the number of cows taxed in the State as and in May, 1871, as While the census of 1870, taken at the same time, returns only - a discrepancy Of very nearly which can be accounted for in no other way than on the supposition that a large number of farms were entirely overlooked. again, the assessors, in 1870, return the number torses as and in 1871, as while the United States census Of 187 0 returns only N ow if it be said in explanation, that the number given in the census includes only horses kept on farms, it does not help the matter any; for the census states the number of horses not on farms as only - making the total number in the State, only, still leaving a discrepancy Of on the large num ber Of farms whose statistics are not included in the census, having been entirely overlooked by the marshals. Moreover.

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