320 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



leads his children to value a mode of 'life equally promotive of 

 their interest and their happiness. 



A judicious outlay of money upon farms, and an addition to 

 the amount of labor now employed in their cultivation, is re- 

 quired by the necessities of the day. And if the mind of the 

 farmer is as exclusively devoted to his pursuit as is that of the 

 mechanic or merchant ; if, lilce them, he shall be continually 

 upon the stretch to discover when an improvement can be made, 

 by which time can be saved or labor dispensed with ; if, ceasing 

 to look backward to the times and customs of his forefathers, he 

 will heed the opinions and necessities of the present and the 

 hopes of the future ; if he will avail himself of the increase of 

 modern knowledge and scientific skill, and substitute the im- 

 provements of the present day for the ascertained errors of the 

 past ; in short, if he will pursue his business for the same ends, 

 and with the same zeal, as is exhibited in the kindred pursuits 

 of manufactures and commerce, he will find no reason to com- 

 plain of a remuneration fully commensurate with the toils and 

 risks he has sustained. But it is not on the ground of individual 

 profit alone that an increased attention to agriculture is de- 

 manded. It is essential to the prosperity of the State that a 

 just relation in its leading pursuits should be maintained ; that 

 its available soil should be brought into cultivation, and an 

 economical appropriation made of all its resources by their 

 employment within its own borders ; that inducements should 

 be offered to check the emigration of its young men ; that the 

 market for its mechanical and commercial products should be 

 enlarged upon its own soil ; and that so far as may be, it should 

 be rendered independent of others for its food as well as its 

 clothing. These are some of the considerations affecting us as 

 a political community, equally important with that of the im- 

 mediate profit of agricultural production. And to these may 

 be added considerations important in another view. The influ- 

 ence of agricultural pursuits upon the character of a people is 

 of higher consequence than their economical results. Compared 

 with most other professions, that of the husbandman demands a 

 more constant exercise of the faculty of judgment. He is not 

 tied down to a single operation throughout an entire year, but 

 each day brings new thoughts and new demands upon his 

 capacity. He is continually dependent upon his observation 



