, MAINE STATE SOCIETY, 25 



one million of acres are well farmed, so as to maintain a high and 

 productive state of fertility. And as New York is confessedly one 

 of the most substantial of all the older States in point of agriculture, 

 this estimate is too flattering to be applied to the older States. Even 

 Ohio, newly settled as she is, begins to fall off per acre in her 

 annual wheat crop, and before fifty years, will, if the present sys- 

 tem of farming continue, be considered a worn out soil." 



In the face of these facts, let the farmers of ]Maine be admonished ; 

 and if they wish to leave a noble inheritance to their children and 

 their children's children, — if they would know, when they retire 

 from this stage of life, that the fertility and loveliness of those hills 

 and valleys will forever be increased, and that their posterity will 

 follow them perpetually in the lofty forms of wisdom, and love, and 

 joy, let them lay their consecrating hands upon the grounds, let 

 them pour upon them from their palms and their hearts an eternal 

 blessing, and let each one say of his own locality, as sang the min- 

 strels of a pastoral people of their own city, or the capital of their 

 country : "If I forget thee, 0, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget 

 her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the 

 roof of my mouth ; if I do not prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy." 



"What a broad and magnificent heritage this is, which we call our 

 own. There is no better nor brighter land. Just think of the vari- 

 ety of the scenery from the St. Croix to the Saco, or from the 

 Aroostook or the northern lakes, to the sea. How this great 

 domain glows before the vision of our minds ; how its numberless 

 hills and valleys gleam, its countless lakes and streams sparkle in 

 the light of the sun; how all the stars of heaven smile on it and 

 bless it. What proofs of the wealth of this land for agricultural 

 purposes have already been brought to light among the hills of Ox- 

 ford, in the regions overlooked by Mount Blue, Abraham and Moxy, 

 and in the valleys of the Androscoggin, the Kennebec, and the 

 "Penobscot. And what resources are yet hidden in every part of 

 this extensive and splendid territory, more than sufiicient to repay . 

 those who will search for them and make them available for the 

 noblest ends. It is in just such a country as this, and not in one 

 of a less diversified surface, that one may repeat appreciatingly and 

 fittingly these words of the Hebrew Monarch, in one of his hymns 

 to the Almighty: "Thou visitest the earth and waterest it ; thou 



