422 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



I might extend titis thought further, and say that the farmers 

 of Norfolk county have not only the advantage of Boston 

 market, but also of that near and profitable market which is 

 furnished by the mechanics and the manufacturing population 

 of our villages. The artisan is placed side by side with the 

 farmer, the consumer with the producer, an arrangement the 

 most advantageous, so far as the distribution of agricultural 

 productions is concerned, and the general prosperity and 

 morality of the people. I do not say that this arrangement 

 leads to the maximum of production ; for that much land 

 and a free use of capital are necessary, and it tends to the 

 depopulation of a country and the separation of its various 

 interests. Happily for us our farms are generally small, 

 and their productions, instead of one or two great staples, 

 consist of hay, grain, vegetables, pork, butter, milk, poultry, 

 eggs, &G. These must be marketed often and with little 

 expense. In forming our ideas of farming as a profession, 

 we are apt to overlook these, and yet in the aggregate they 

 amount to more than all the cotton, rice and sugar raised 

 in the United States. Our farming interests are closely con- 

 nected with those of mechanism and manufacturing. No 

 civilization approaches towards perfection that does not present 

 this union, and the more thorough the union, the more does 

 each pursuit contribute to the prosperity of the others. 



Every mechanic's shop, every steam engine at work, every 

 stream occupied by a mill, yields something to the farmer's 

 profit by furnishing a ready market for his produce, while the 

 perception of mutual dependence and support benefits his moral 

 nature. When one interest predominates the body suffers. 

 There are in Massachusetts towns in which there are no me- 

 chanics, no mills, scarcely any trades. Farming is the sole 

 business. The young men remove to the West or to cities. 

 The population diminishes. The farms become fewer in 

 number and of larger size. The property is concentrated in 

 few hands. The social and moral condition of the town, and 

 usually its interest in education, deteriorate. But the gross 

 amount of agricultural productions is increased, and the profits 

 still more increased in consequence of the easier control of 

 capital. I consider this unfortunate. So far as it e:*tends, it 



