TRANSACTIONS. 197 



Now, then, is the time for the farmer to plow and sow 

 and gather in. Now he is not required to make donations 

 to save a nation from starvation, but to furnish the produc- 

 tions of his fields and pastures for a liberal compensation. 

 England, France, Kussia arc princely powers, and must ren- 

 der an equivalent for every bushel of corn, every pound of 

 beef, and every bag of rice, which the wings of commerce 

 may bear to their shores. 



With such inducements, let the farmer find no idle day. 

 If the great cities scattered along our Atlantic coast and 

 on the margin of our rapid rivers, — if the thousand manu- 

 facturing towns and villages, cannot consume the surplus 

 of the farm, there is opened a market across the waters, 

 which will unlock its treasury at the bidding of the Ameri- 

 can farmer. 



Farmers of New Hampshire, though winter snows fall 

 heavily upon you, and early frosts clothe your fields with 

 withered leaves, you need not doubt. Your lauds are yet 

 unworn; your plains are easy of cultivation; your meadows, 

 yield a munificent harvest ; your forest-lands groan beneath 

 their growing riches ; your hills arc full of wealth ; your 

 farms have been linked by iron bands to the best of mark- 

 ets ; and the products of your soil — your butter and cheese, 

 your corn and oats, your sugar and starch, the timber from 

 your woods and the granite from your quarries, are far more 

 valuable than certificates of railway stock or money in banks. 

 But what if this picture is not all true? What if there is 

 not so much profit ? What if every seed which is cast into 

 the earth does not yield an hundred fold ? Is it man's only 

 motive to gather gold ? Is it his whole destiny to labor, 

 amass riches, and to die ? Are there no social pleasures on 

 the farm — no moral beauty which the vices of the world can- 

 not pollute ? 



Wealth may give the possessor power and influence, but 

 it can confer no real happiness. If our farmers could but 

 believe, when tlicir farms are unincumbered, and they have 



