GOVERNOR PERHAM'S ADDRESS. 15 



for a yield of at least thirty bushels to the acre, and that is double- 

 the average crop of the wheat lands of the West. I supposed, 

 when I was there, that the crop must be very small, in conse- 

 quence of this freeze ; but I am informed that the average yield 

 was upwards of twenty bushels to the acre, notwithstanding all 

 these unfavorable circumstances. I am certain that, in an ordi- 

 nary year, there would have been at least thirty bushels. Each 

 man cleared ten to fifteen acres, from which he reserved enough 

 for his buildings, his garden, a yard for his cows, &c, and on the 

 balance they raised 125 bushels of very excellent wheat, or nearly 

 25 bushels to the acre ; and the other crops grown were in propor- 

 tion to this. I have to say here, that whatever may be said of the 

 West, — and I am not here to deny its advantages at all, — I am 

 very certain, that the man who is comfortably settled here, or the 

 man, even, who desires to change his position, will find, all things 

 considered, advantages in that section of country that are suffi- 

 cient, if he rightly considers the subject, and takes every thing 

 into consideration, to prevent him from going West. I have an 

 idea, that if more of our people who have made up their minds to 

 leave the places where they now live, would go into that section 

 of the State, they would in a few years find themselves better 

 situated than they have any good reason to suppose they would 

 be in the West. 



You will pardon me for dwelling upon this subject ; for I feel 

 that unless we in the State of Maine say something for our State, 

 nobody else will be likely to do so, and I feel that the few facts I 

 have stated, and I have mentioned but a very few, and what I 

 have stated, I know to be within the bounds of truth, might be 

 properly mentioned here for our encouragement. 



It may be expected that I should say something of the county in 

 which you assemble. As a farming county, Oxford boasts of noth- 

 ing very remarkable, still we have some excellent farms and excel- 

 lent farmers ; men who have made money in farming. We have 

 some of the very best land in the valley of the Saco, and we have 

 upon the Androscoggin river some superior fanning land. The 

 proof of this is to be found in the success which our farmers have 

 had in cultivating those lands. We can furnish in Oxford county 

 as good soil for fruit-growing, — for apples, at least, as any other 

 portion of the State. My impression is, that it may be superior 

 to any other; I am quite certain it is equal to. any. A visit to the 

 orchards of this county, in seasons when we have a tolerable crop, 



