FARM LIFE IN NEW ENGLAND. 39 



without an exception, sprung from the farming ranks. What need 

 to catalogue their names. Take any in that long line of brilliancy 

 and we can trace them back to a humble birth upon an American 

 farm. Does not our republic owe a mighty debt to the soil that has 

 given her this proud list? And if you will pardon a single digressing 

 thought is it not sound politi(!al business to maintain this fountain 

 head, this breeding place, in such good conditions that the future 

 shall likewise be assured? The cities have given us but very few 

 leaders. Other occupations located in thn country have scarcely 

 placed themselves on record, but to the soil and to the farm training 

 this country owes the larger part of her greatness. This debt can 

 only be repaid by giving a fostering care to agriculture from both 

 State and national standpoint, by relieving it from laws bearing 

 heavily upon it, by guarding it from unjust prospective laws, by 

 regulating its present unequal and excessive taxation, andb}' placing 

 a higher and more thorough education within the reach of this class. 



The condition of agriculture in New England to-day compares 

 favorably with that of any other section of our country. Let me 

 anticipate your contradiction. The farms are mortgaged. Yes, 

 far too man}' of them for 5 per cent as many are at the West and 

 South for 8 per cent and 10 per cent. Farms are deserted and 

 growing up to wood. Yes, many of them should never have been 

 cleared, and unscientific farming has taken the heart out of man}' 

 more as it is to-day doing in every Western State ; and in the South 

 aband'oned plantations are as abundant as abandoned farms in the 

 North. The South and West raise special crops, and receive large 

 suras of money for them. Yes, granted, but at the smallest per 

 cent above cost, and we all remtMuber the adage of all the eggs in 

 one basket ; the mixed farming of New England requires many 

 baskets, and all do not get broken at once. The long cold winters 

 of New England. Yes, but I will match clean, healthful snow 

 against a dirt}' malarious mud, will you not also? The lite -.nd 

 push of the west. Yes, but much of it comes from New P^ngland 

 and here is the point : Wb^dd you have any more there than you 

 have here? 



The easy working of western lands which enable a man there to 

 care for ten acres as easily as he does (^ne here ; yes, and he works 

 just as many hours a day to do it, and receives no more therefor, 

 but has as an especial privilege the pleasure of paying taxes upon his 

 nine extra acres. Oh conservative doubter, where is the gam? And 



