FARMING IN NEW ENGLAND. 331 



but is not that climate best which tends to give the greatest 

 rigor to the intellect and body, and enables the person to ac- 

 complish the most? In this view, neither the mild climate of 

 the Southern States, nor the equal temperature of the West 

 India Inlands, gives those places any advantage over us. The 

 English climate, with all its clouds, fogs and dampness, produces 

 a better race of men than the sunny skies of Italy. Our climate 

 requires labor, but it gives strength and enterprise. Life is as 

 long here as anywhere, and health is as good. Let no man 

 elander or speak ill of a climate which produces such good 

 effects, even though the thermometer does range from twenty 

 degrees below zero to one hundred above, and even though the 

 winter does last half of the year. The climate of the West is 

 milder, and the earth produces with less labor; but he makes a 

 poor bargain who leaves the rocky fields and pure water of New 

 England, where he can have health and vigor, for richer fields, 

 covered with an atmosphere full of disease and death. 



Another advantage which the New England farmer has is in 

 the institutions of learning and religion with which he is sur- 

 rounded. Here he can educate his children in the free schools. 

 This advantage can best be realized by emigrants to places where 

 these institutions are not found. Such emigrants may acquire 

 wealth, their barns may be filled and their granaries loaded ; 

 but all this does not compensate for the lo'ss they sustain. They 

 have not that which alone can give wealth any value, and amidst 

 them all they still long for their native hills, and the home of 

 their youth. 



Our agriculture is hereafter to derive much advantage from 

 the diversity of our soil. There is no doubt that much improve- 

 ment can be made by a proper admixture of soils ; but to what 

 extent this can be carried science and experience will hereafter 

 determine. In this respect we have a material advantage over 

 those countries whose whole soil is nearly of a uniform char- 

 acter. 



Our agriculture will always have a material advantage in our 

 ready market. New England can never lose its central posi- 

 tion ; and so long as it retains its commercial enterprise the 

 market of the world will be open to it. It vras called by the 

 first settlers a remote corner of the earth ; and as things then 

 were it was thus designated with great propriety. It may now 



