SAGADAHOC COUNTY SOCIETY. IQ^ 



tutions, gives us a large, independent and stable cla^s of intelli- 

 gent, rural population, such as never before enriched and gave 

 security to any country or age. 



Agriculture, in its various branches, always has been, and always 

 must be the chief employment of all civilized countries. It feeds 

 and clothes earth's teeming millions, and supplies by far the larg- 

 est part of the material of trade and commerce. Our small traders 

 and grocers, our "merchant princes," with their well filled store- 

 houses and richly ladened ships on every sea, and from every clime, 

 are but middle men — exchangers or agents, standing between the 

 producer and consumer to facilitate exchanges between them. 

 Wealthy towns and cities, with their art and luxury, are built up, 

 and the most of their wealth created by the profits, charged in 

 some form, on agricultural, mechanical and manufacturing labor. 

 This sj^stem of exchanges, or mercantile system, even as it is, is 

 an important part of the world's industry. But if it were con- 

 ducted on fair, sound and economical principles, about one-half of 

 our exchangers might become producers, and the producing classes 

 relieved from the burthen of supporting them, which is now done 

 by the large profits levied on the products of their industry. Let 

 me illustrate this by an example : — Take almost any of our villages 

 and towns, or the different localities in them, and you will find 

 more traders than are actually necessary to supply the wants of 

 the places where they are located. Frequently one trader could 

 do the business now done by half a dozen ; and by having his bus- 

 iness increased six fold, and out of its profits to pay rent, taxes 

 and insurance, on only one store instead of six, and having to sup- 

 port only one family instead of six ; it must be readily seen that if 

 trade were conducted on correct principles, the consumers would 

 be relieved of burdensome taxes, now paid to superfluous agents in 

 the form of profits on merchandize sold by them. But we may 

 hope that the future will bring a reform in our system of exchang- 

 ing productions, and so large a portion of the profits of labor not 

 be wasted on this unnecessary number of exchangers and non- 

 producers. 



By the census of 1850 it was shown that about one-half the pop- 

 ulation of the free States were engaged in agriculture, cultivating 

 108,200,000 farms, and turning out an annual product worth nearly 

 $900,000,000. The farmers of Maine bear about the same propor- 

 tion to her whole population, nearly one-half of our people being 

 engaged in agricultural pursuits. Agriculture has already become 



