16 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Recapitulation from Statistics of 1868, May 1st. 



Assuming that the fifteen mills in process of erection will 

 cost per spindle about the same as the twenty-four already in 

 successful operation, we shall have a capital of about thirteen 

 millions employed in the cotton manufacture. Six other mills 

 not fully decided upon, will probably be erected during the 

 coming year. 



The question will naturally arise, and has been often asked, 

 Whence this large capital ? Surely not accumulated fortune 

 from abroad has wrought these wonderful changes ; it has all 

 been accomplished by the silent, irresistible force of muscle and 

 brain, which never fail in whatever they attempt. 



From the commencement of what has now become such a 

 wide spread and unsurpassed extension of business, it has been 

 a home work. We have had some among us who have matured 

 their plans, and then, in a quiet and intelligent manner, bent all 

 their energies in their prosecution ; always adopting the motto, 

 never fail. 



I will cite, for instance, the Fall River Iron Works Company, 

 which commenced its operation in 1821. 



Eight individuals of limited means formed a joint-stock com- 

 pany, fixing their capital at $24,000, dividing their stock into 

 thirty-two shares, at $750 each, equally between the eight owners. 

 They commenced business in 1822 ; their first assessment was 

 twenty-five dollars on the share, at which time two of their 

 number received appointments, one as agent and the other as 

 an associate agent, with a salary to each of $1.25 per day. We 

 have no record of any change of salary until 1839, seventeen 

 years. In 1825, the first meeting of which we have any record, 

 they were organized, and became incorporated, with a capital 

 of $200,000. At a meeting in 1828, certificates of stock were 

 issued. In 1831, three of the original stockholders had retired, 

 having sold their stock to their associates at cost and interest. 



