SECRETARY'S REPORT. 41 



Arc there not also among us, numbers of those who, feeling with 

 terrible severity the late reverses in commercial and manufiicturing 

 pursuits, turn anxiously to the soil, and would gladly invest the 

 remnant of property left them, in a narrow axe, and settle down 

 upon a goodly lot in the public domain, which promises with a degree 

 of certainty of fulfilment which commerce and manuflictures cannot 

 do, even in their palmiest days, a comfortable support and sturdy 

 independence for themselves and their children, forever ? Such may 

 be assured, that although neither health, energy, nor a determina- 

 tion to succeed, can safely be dispensed Avith, nor a willingness 

 to encounter privation of many of the conveniences which abound 

 in our cities and large manufacturing villages, there is a wide differ- 

 ence between the inconveniences and privations of him who goes 

 now, and what was experienced years ago by those who went earlier. 

 Black flies and musquitoes are not extinct as yet, it is true, but the 

 roads, if not just what could be wished, are, by no means what they 

 once were, nor is the mill, the school-house, and the church, so rare 

 as formerly. 



It might do none of vis any harm to bring to mind oftener than 

 we have been accustomed to do of late years, the trials and arduous 

 labors of the pioneers of our State, and I accordingly insert here a 

 quotation or two as illustrative not only of what these wxre, but 

 also of the actual progress which has attended their efforts. The 

 following is from a communication lately received from one of the 

 early settlers of Penobscot county : 



" Dear Sir : Your circular requesting agricultural statistics from me, duly 

 came to hand. In reply, I would say, that I am an uneducated man ; that I 

 seldom, if ever, put my ideas and observations on paper for the perusal of 

 others, and shall not probably be able to give you much information that will 

 be of interest. Suffice it to say, that I have already lived to the age commonly 

 allotted man, viz., seventy years. I was born in Little Compton, R. I., in 

 August, 17HG. In 1788, my father moved from Rhode Island to the town of 

 Union in this State. 



After we left the vessel on Georges river, our only means of conveyance was 

 a simple boat, known as a ' Dug-out,' not much like the steamboats of modern 

 days. We landed by the side of Seventree Pond. At this time the only roads 

 were the rivers and ponds, and the only carriage the Dug-out. There were a 

 few little huts scattered about on the margins of the streams. I remember 

 well the hut that my father put up, with a poplar log with notches erected for 

 stairs. Tlie first of our clearings were sown to rye. Corn on the burn was 



