390 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



year by year more and more intelligent and productive ? And 

 would it not be well for many of our young men of moderate 

 means to accept the position of independent, though small, 

 proprietors, in the valleys or on the hill-sides of New England ? 



It may well be doubted whether, for a life of labor, any part 

 of the world offers a better return than Massachusetts. And 

 there are few States less likely to deteriorate in character. The 

 ocean, the hills, the mountains, the climate, the soil, all contri- 

 bute to produce a hardy race of men. The presence and keen 

 sagacity of an extensive and constantly increasing commerce, 

 will open new and perfect old channels of trade, so that no pro- 

 duct of our industry shall want a compensating market. We 

 have a civilization as solid and progressive, a religion as free, a 

 system of education as popular and perfect, a body of laborers 

 in the mills and shops, on the land and sea, as intelligent as 

 can be found in any State of America or Europe. 



And to all the farmers of Massachusetts, it is a matter of 

 special interest that agriculture has been ennobled. Not, in- 

 deed, by any condescension or care of individual men or the 

 State, but by the general intelligence and spirit of progress 

 among the farmers themselves. While farmers failed to respect 

 their own profession, the profession itself, whatever its intrinsic 

 merits, must have been menial ; now, however, it is pursued 

 with more of the spirit which animates the student, the painter, 

 the poet, and the astronomer. 



But let us all, whether we be of New England or the West, 

 respect labor, not as our master, whose law makes us slaves, 

 but as an instrument of civilization, an educator and benefactor 

 of the whole familv of man. 



