64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



numbers of smutty shirts that passed through their grandmothers' 

 wash-tubs while these forests were being consumed by fire, before 

 the advent of washing-machines and wringers. Some of us, old 

 men, from the newer portions of this State, have borne our full 

 share of that smut. 



Many a man who has hewn out a farm from the wilderness in 

 Maine, when the task of burning away the wood is done, and be- 

 fore he is well settled down to the bottom clearing — draining the 

 swamps and removing the stones — has found his farm rapidly de- 

 cline in its products. He finds himself in a precarious position. 

 Something akin to this is the present position of our whole 

 country. 



But little is known here yet, practically, of that methodical and 

 wisely-directed industry which in some of the old countries is 

 causing a still increasing amount of product, on fields that have 

 been tilled for thousands of years. Our people find themselves 

 possessed of a country vast in resources, but imperfectly devel- 

 oped. Seeing on every side avenues opening to tlie exertion ol 

 human energy and skill, they are restless, eager for gain, and 

 bound by few local attachments. They subdue farms and erect 

 buildings with reference to their market value, when they are 

 ready to migrate. They plant few trees, because too much time 

 elapses before they attain their growth. If appealed to, that their 

 acts will be commended by posterity, they are ready with an 

 answer in the spirit of the language used by the English states- 

 man, " Confound posterity ! What has it ever done for us ?" 



I have so far in this effort aimed to lead you along with me to 

 my present stand-point, where I see a degree of sameness in the 

 physical aspect of our country, from the Atlantic coast to Kansas — 

 bleak hills and unsheltered plains, swept by continental winds that 

 freeze us in winter, and too rapidly bear from us the life-giving 

 moisture in summer. 



It is right for us to examine all that is roughness and deformity 

 in the country that embraces our homes. If we cannot bo at 

 peace in contact with its character as it is, it is the part of wis- 

 dom in us to seek a remedy. The zone of earth is narrow, as we 

 have seen, that produces the men who govern the world. 



If wc tire of winter and abandon the situation to enter upon a 

 life of dreamy repose under tropical shades, we surrender our in- 

 terest in the future progress of man as he tends to a still higher 

 type. If we migrate on a line of latitude in search of the ideal, 



