NORTH AROOSTOOK SOCIETY. • J^J 



of religion ; there is no State in this Union in which a person would 

 be likely to enjoy through life a sum total of happmess gf eater than 

 in Maine. This being true, it follows of course that we have 



"The happiest spot below." 



I speak of our soil. I know it is common to talk of our barren 

 and sterile soil, and yet where are there larger crops raised than in 

 Maine ? Where is there more corn, or oats, or barley, or wheat, 

 or potatoes, or turnips, or beans, or hay, raised from an acre than 

 in Maine ? 



I speak of the variety of our productions. And where is the 

 State or country of the size of Maine, that actually produces a 

 greater variety of what enters into the consumption of the human 

 family than our own State ? 



We have a hundred varieties of fruit, and as many of fish ; we 

 have game from our forest, and beef, mutton and pork from our 

 fields, poultry and eggs, an unlimited supply ; sugar and molasses 

 from our groves, and honey from our thousand flowers ; corn, 

 wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, potatoes, beans, peas, and an 

 endless variety of garden vegetables ; our flocks furnish our clothes, 

 and the skins of our herds every variety of leather ; our forests pour 

 upon us their annual flood of wealth ; our slate quarries are unsur- 

 passed in the world, and the lime of Maine is known the world 

 over. We have iron enough to checker the earth with a net work 

 of railroads, and granite sufficient to fortify the world. 



In addition to all this and more, we have six hundred thousand 

 men and women born and reared either upon our three hundred 

 miles of sea coast and its thousands of islands where old ocean 

 thunders and roars amidst the granite walls which held him in ; or 

 else, among the mountains and valleys, lakes and forests of the 

 interior, inured to toil, disciplined amidst all that is great, noble, 

 and magnificent in the handiwork of God ; the noblest crop that ever 

 the world produced. 



Now friends, what do you want better than Maine ? or where 

 beneath the sun will you find a better home ? 



The old Georgia blacksmith, who used to sit in the mountain 

 pass watching for Methodist ministers, singing — 



" Georgia is a glorious State, 

 Her mountains are noble. 

 Her people are great ;" 



might have sung to some purpose, had he been a resident of Maine. 

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