366 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



he never felt before, and a self-respect which shall challenge 

 and secure the respect of the world. 



I do not speak without a knowledge of the exact situation of 

 our small towns and villages. It has been my fortune to live 

 in very many different ones in this and other States, and to 

 have been more or less intimately acquainted with the inhabi- 

 tants of them all. I am not so sanguine as to suppose that a 

 club would meet with equal success in every place. In some, 

 indeed, there is too much reason to fear that it would fail 

 altogether, from the want of a few leading minds interested in 

 the subject ; but I believe that the number of these would be 

 small, and I know of no better way of meeting the wants of 

 those inquiring and thinking minds, which now form a large 

 part of every community. I know of no better way of con- 

 vincing the doubtful, that a cultivated intellect is not inconsist- 

 ent with a body strengthened by honorable toil, or of showing 

 that there is one thing in which all parties can unite — the cul- 

 tivation of those higher social feelings which lie at the basis of 

 all civilized society. 



A beginning once made, however small, forming a nucleus 

 for a library and a cabinet, enterprising and active minds would 

 create a thousand facilities for enlarging and increasing it. 

 Difficulties vanish the nearer we get to them. The lion is glad 

 to get out of the way. No man ever succeeded who cherished 

 in inactivity the delusive dream of hope. 



Why, gentlemen, let such a club take up the discussion of 

 the adaptation of flax to your lighter soils, and its probable 

 profit, and I believe it would pay for all the trouble and expense 

 of starting a club in every town and every village in the county. 



Inquiring ' minds would look into the mode of culture, the 

 extent of the demand, the expense of raising it, and the value 

 of the crop. Facts would be brought out, which would throw 

 light on the subject and encourage the cultivation of the plant. 

 One would be surprised to find that the demand reached the 

 utmost limit of the possibility of supply, and that the farmers 

 of the West, raising it for the seed alone, can realize a profit 

 which will enable them to throw away the fibre, which is itself 

 worth nearly the price of hay. Another would discover that 

 much of your soil is admirably adapted to it, that it requires 

 only a moderate degree of fertility, that there is more danger of 



