64 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



pie gathered around the table, we found that we were all 

 natives of Maine. The host acknowledged that New England 

 was the best place in the world for the comforts of life, and 

 yet he could not be contented when he returned there. Why? 

 Because he had that virus in his veins, — that, being a mere 

 taint when it impelled him to leave home, is now the fever 

 that rages through every vein, and will give him no rest but 

 in places of rapid change. 



" So, when a raging fever bums, 

 We change from side to side by tiuns ; 

 And 'tis a poor relief we gain 

 To.change the place, but not the pain." 



The whiskey-drinker, whose throat has become parched 

 with the poison, and whose veins are filled with its fire, has 

 no taste for the clear water in which is his only hope ; but he 

 pours down larger draughts of the exciting stimulant. So it 

 is with those who live in the midst of a changing population, 

 — in the excitement of a new country. Some long for the 

 quiet which they have left, which they can never again enjoy, 

 and others rail at the stupidity of those who remain at home, 

 when the excitement of the whole western world is open for 

 their choosing. 



We can omit for a single day the discussion of methods for 

 raising crops and fertilizing land to inquire how the New Eng- 

 land home can be preserved and rendered more beautiful and 

 attractive than it is. We may go the world over and not find 

 more beauty than the hills and valleys of Ncav England ofTer, 

 from the freshness of its magic spring to the blaze of splen- 

 dor that mantles her forests with crimson and gold as autumn 

 is ready to yield to the reign of winter. Clear skies, invig- 

 orating air, green fields and crystal springs, certainly. New 

 England has to ofier in almost every portion of it. But the 

 hard soil of New England has rendered so much labor need- 

 ful that on many a farm where taste has found no home, and 

 where, as Whittier intimates, "they save their pork and souls 

 with the least possible amount of salt and sanctity," the home 

 has become repulsive to the children. They remember it 

 kindly, it may be, but they remember the continuous labor 

 that made them mere drudges, leaving little time for study 

 and less for recreation. They were hardened by exposure 



