BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 281 



and when it is turned into channels where demand does not exist, the 

 result is the same. Everything of this kind is unnatural, and as such, 

 must be productive of evil consequences. 



We see this fact illustrated in all the departments of human life and 

 industry, an^ in every organized body. Whenever the human body, 

 while in health, is subjected to the operation of artificial stimulants, 

 a reaction takes place, which carries it as fur below the healthy point 

 of action as it went above, and invariably adds to this evil, that of 

 excessive wear and exhaustion of the vital forces. 



Agriculture is not an exception to this general law. As jaroof of 

 this, take the case of the bounty on wheat in 183G-7. That acted as 

 a stimulant, and the next year carried production up to a point never 

 before reached, or anything near it, in the State, and made a heavier 

 drain on the State treasury than all our other agricultural operations 

 have from the beginning. What gocd did it do ? We mean perma- 

 nent good. 



We know it showed what Maine can do on an occasion ; but it did 

 not show what she can do as a permanent and annual thing. No such 

 production as was there attained, could, by any possibility, under the 

 circumstances, be sustained. It was not even repealed ; for the very 

 next year, there was an immense falling off, and so it continued down 

 the scale, till it reached a point as far below the healthy point, as it 

 "went above. From that low point, production has increased, under 

 the stimulant of demand, and as available means would justify, till 

 production has climbed up the scale, to a very respectWole position — 

 probably quite as hi^h as proJitaMe production will justify. 



So in regard to the production of flax. The attempt to force its 

 production by a bounty to encourage its growth, has proved a total 

 failure, as might have been anticipated, simply because there is no de- 

 mand for it. If it is grown, it has no mbrket. And it is probable, 

 that the few men who obtained premiums on its production, are the 

 poorer for it. Years ago much flax was grown in this State, and mills 

 were erected to dress it ; but all these " have disappeared. Why ? 

 Simply because the demand was not such as to produce remunerating 

 prices on its growth and preparation for market. 



We think no reflecting mind can fail to perceive, that all this busi- 

 ness of off'ering premiums or bounties on the production of certain 

 specific articles or crops, has been productive of no good, to say the 

 least ; and the reason why is equally obvious. 



And yet, as most of our agricultural societies conduct their affairs, 

 they are laboring to gain results in the same direction. They aim by 

 their premiums, to stimulate production, and difi'cr from State boun- 

 ties only, in that they apply it to all sorts of production and manufac- 



