4 MASSACHUSETTS AGKICULTURE. 



the height of the financial excitement, to more than one 

 hundred and eighty per centum premium. 



Among these wonderful changes and fluctuations, however, 

 farms shared but little. A farm in the average Massachusetts 

 towns represented in its sale no more paper money than it 

 did when paper money was not at a discount, and gold and 

 silver commanded no premium. 



From that day to this, saving and excepting the actual 

 increased value of farms by improvements made on the lands, 

 the fences and the buildings, there has been little change in 

 their market value. When one hundred dollars in gold was 

 worth two hundred and eighty dollars in paper money, no 

 perceptible increased price was either given or ofiered for 

 your lands ; they held the even tenor of their way, while the 

 products of your skill and industry as farmers shared to 

 an extent in the general rise. 



This sharing in the general rise was a clear net gain 

 without a drawback, as your lands to-day are as valuable as 

 before the days to which I have alluded. All other kinds of 

 business have had blows so severe as to absolutely paralyze 

 them ; yours goes on in the old way. 



So far as this gain was made in the farming towns, it 

 represented the absolute net gain which the industry, thrift 

 and frugality of the people had enabled them to make, and a 

 large portion of which they will be able to maintain under 

 the most adverse conditions of trade. 



During this period, the immense stimulus given to manu- 

 facturing and trade was like a train of cars under full 

 headway on a down grade, with full steam working, and the 

 descent of the grade constantly increasing. When the 

 Rebellion ceased, and the men who had so nobly fought for 

 the government, or so vainly and foolishly fought to bring 

 about its ruin, returned to their homes, the mills kept on 

 going ; trade continued ; not even the brakes were applied ; 

 neither was the steam shut ofi*. New mills that were in 

 process of building were finished and put to work, and other 

 new ones were built and set in operation, until, if possible, 

 the business of the country magnified and grew as though no 

 limit could be reached in the supply, and the demand could 

 never be met. 



