44 . MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



in value, his productions are increased, and he supplies him- 

 self not only with the necessaries of life, but with its luxuries 

 also, and he becomes truly a lord in creation. 



The farmer who produces food and the raw materials for 

 the manufacturer, must in return receive the products of the 

 manufacturers, — such as tools, clothing and furniture, — and 

 the closer their interests are allied the greater the profits and 

 the cheaper will be their products to each other. 



The produce of the farm especially will not bear a long 

 transportation, as the cost would absorb the whole profit 

 above production. The cost of food that would feed a thou- 

 sand people at home, would not feed five hundred at a dis- 

 tance of a hundred miles, without the ready means of steam 

 or water transportation. 



Thus it will be seen that a population combining all these 

 interests in close relation can supply each other's wants much 

 cheaper and to the material advantage of all, sending the 

 surplus to a foreign market and bringing in return such arti- 

 cles as are not produced in the home-market, and giving to 

 industry its greatest rcAvard. 



The capital expended in the construction of improved means 

 of communication will generally repay the cost in the increase 

 of the value of property situated M'ithin the range of its busi- 

 ness. It Ijrings the producer nearer his market, and he reaps 

 more equal advantages with those who live nearer the cities 

 and large manufiicturing towns. 



The cost of an article depends not only on the production 

 but also on the cost of bring-ing it to market. Coal would be 

 valueless at the mines unless there were other means than hu- 

 man power to transport it to the consumer. But with steam 

 and railroad facilities it becomes cheap fuel thousands of miles 

 from the mines. And the same power brings all parts of a 

 country into close relationship. Thus all branches of indus- 

 try help and assist each other, and all are made richer and 

 happier. 



But the vital utility of manufactures to the farmer is in 

 their subserviency to agriculture by affording to the husband- 

 man a nearer and steady home-marl'et. They give him the 

 advantaije of two markets instead of one. And instead of 

 quickening the industry and augmenting the resources of other 



