EESOUECES OF ]\L1SSACHUSETTS. 37 



RESOURCES OF MASSACHUSETTS 



From an Address before the Deerfield Valley Agricultural Society. 



BY WILLIAM CLAFLIN. 



The reputation of the people of this part of the State for 

 enterprise has always been of the highest character, and this 

 beautiful and successful exhibition of the products of the 

 farmer shows that there is no diminution of enerijv in its 

 inhabitants. As we look around we see evidences of the 

 steady increase of wealth and the growth of culture in the 

 community. 



Not on the seaboard alone, or in the great manufacturing 

 centres is this advance manifest, but our interior towns and 

 villages also, show that the causes of prosperity in a commu- 

 nity are general, and that each part will share in their benefits 

 though not always in an equal degi-ee. 



What then are the sources of the vast increase of popula- 

 tion and wealth in our borders, — an increase so great as to 

 enable us to retain our relative position, the seventh, accord- 

 ing to the censuses of 1860 and 1870, in the list of the 

 States ? 



To answer this question fully would take much more time 

 than can be devoted to it in the brief period allowed us, but 

 I may indicate some of the principal advantages possessed by 

 the inhabitants of this Commonwealth : 



First. Our location is most desirable, bordering as it does 

 on the ocean, with a long sea-coast, abounding in excellent 

 harbors ; the world is open to the enterprise of our people. 

 It is traversed by numerous rivers and streams which furnish 

 water-power of incalculable value to our prosperous manu- 

 factories. 



Second. Its climate is most healthful and invigorating, 



