ANDROSCOGGIN COUNTY SOCIETY. 221 



either of the brain or muscle, must come those rewards which bless 

 the world, and form its crowning glories. 



Your annual gathering is not a one-idea-ism : it is a concentrating 

 and magnifying of mingling interests, which are becoming more and 

 more indissoluble in their relation. The agricultural, the mechani- 

 cal, and the artistical, — of these interests I would speak. To the 

 farmer, nothing more need be said to his praise and honor, than has 

 been said. A few hints, however, from which he may derive some 

 benefit, may be offered. 



It seems to have been an insanity of past nations, as it is of the 

 present powers of the earth, to add territory to their national do- 

 main. And as with nations, so with men. The farmer, if he has 

 twenty acres of well-tilled land, casts his eye upon a neighboring 

 field — he wants it — he covets it more than he prizes all he at pres- 

 ent owns. And he who has an hundred acres of meadow, hill and 

 wood, wants just one piece more to complete his desire ; and he will 

 allow a portion of what is now his to run to waste or barrenness, for 

 the sake of possessing one he has not. But it should be remem- 

 bered that it is the cultivating of a farm, and not the number of 

 acres of which it is composed, that renders it valuable to the owner. 

 Many a man who can stand in the door-way of his house and meas- 

 ure his entire farm with one glance of the eye, is richer than many 

 who count their acres by the hundred. There are many large farms, 

 the produce of which is not equal to that gathered from some single 

 acres. There are but few farms properly cultivated. You will 

 find it more to your interest, to raise sixty bushels of corn from one 

 acre, than seventy from two acres ; better to gather five barrels of 

 apples from one tree, than the same quantity from five trees. And 

 so it is better to gather eight hundred or a thousand dollars worth 

 from five acres, than it is to obtain the same amount from an hun- 

 dred. The investment is less, the profit result greater. 



The fact is, almost every farmer has more land than he can suc- 

 cessfully cultivate. Every farm in Maine can be made to produce 

 from two to five-fold more than at present, with but small addition 

 to the expense. Land, the income of which is barely sufficient to 

 pay the tax thereon, may be made to "bring forth and bud, giving 

 seed to the sower and bread to the eater." Many of you, unques- 

 tionably, have such land. And what is the matter ? Is it cold and 



