SECRETARY'S HEPORT. 173 



'•' I did not intend to write a treatise on political ecotiomy, but 

 someliow, in ray rambling mode of writing, I ran into it, in try-- 

 ing to show that the farmer and mechanic at tlic east have to 

 support, not only the extravagance which may possil)ly exist in 

 his own family, but also that, of the very large class of non-pro- 

 ducers. At the west he will not long escape the same incon^ 

 venicnces. Presidents must be made; Congressmen must have 

 champaigne, pistols, and sticks; the mails must be loaded with 

 buncomb speeches ; the fighting apparatus, army and naVy, must 

 be supported, and men, w*onien and children must live fast. 

 For all these things the west as well as the cast must soon 

 help to pay. Disguise, hide, smooth over the fact as we may, 

 the working man muat in some way or other, pay the bills." 



I will introduce but one quotation more, and this from a town 

 in Piscataquis county: 



" Lumbering no doubt has had a deleterious effect in retard^ 

 ing a judicious course of farming among us. True, our market 

 has been hereby principally created, but it has ever been so 

 fluctuating in its demands that we have always found it un-^ 

 reliable ; whereas, if our farmers were devoted to' the growth 

 of wool or meat mainly, all our hay, grain, roots, &c., would" 

 hereby be consumed on the farm, and the crop would readily 

 find a market, if not at our own doors, yet not far distant. 



As to the number of persons engaged in agricultural pursuits, 

 who have moved from our town since 1850, I am not able, with- 

 out considerable trouble, to speak accurately; but for a period 

 of ten years, the time I have lived in town, there have one hun- 

 dred and seventy-four of the above named class emigrated, 

 and much the greater part have left within the last five years. 

 Besides, many others who followed other pursuits have also 

 left, so that the entire emigration from our town would not 

 fall far short of three hundred during the time specified. Some 

 sixty or seventy of these emigrants have gone to the western 

 States, many to Massachusetts, a few to California, and the 

 rest, the Lord knows where. 



Why did they go ? Some said they left because Maine was 

 not fit for a farmer to live in, but probably the true cause of 

 emigration is found in an uneasy, unsettled spirit of specula- 

 tion^ a ruling desire to find some far-off "land of the leal,'^ 

 wherein they could live and flourish like heroes." 



