ADAPTATION OF LABOR. 29 



I get not only as much money for my crop as the Jersey man — 

 that is, a fair profit on the cost of raising the article, for no 

 staple article is ever grown many years below the cost of raising 

 it, — but I get the commission of the New York man, the com- 

 mission of the Providence man, the cost of transportation from 

 New Jersey to New York, from New York to Providence, and 

 from Providence to Fall River, all of which amounts to a very 

 considerable sum, — more, I think, on the average, than the 

 original cost of the cabbages in New Jersey. 



This is only one instance. The same thing is true of hay, 

 although hay, as a general thing, is not brought so far, and the 

 cost of transportation is not so great. But hay is worth much 

 more here than in Vermont, where the demand for it is limited. 

 The great demand for hay is to feed the horses that are used in 

 our large towns. So I believe that we should start with that 

 leading principle, that the agriculture of New England, before 

 it reaches its perfection, or anything approaching its perfection, 

 must deal directly with the problem : to raise, not what can be 

 as cheaply and easily brought from the far West, or from any 

 remote district, but what can only be raised right here, or what, 

 being raised here, will save an excessive cost of transportation 

 from long distances ; that is to say, something the price of which 

 is regulated by the cost of transportation. I remember that, in 

 1852, 1 delivered an address before an agricultural society in the 

 north-eastern part of Maine, 165 miles north-east of Bangor. 

 The land was easily cultivated, very rich, from the burning of 

 the timber that had been cut down in clearing it. The great 

 demand in that immediate vicinity was for food for the lumber- 

 men and the lumbermen's teams ; and wheat, of which they were 

 producing regularly about forty bushels to the acre, was worth 

 the price of wheat in Bangor, and that is Western wheat, brought 

 from Ohio and Western New York, with the cost of 165 miles of 

 wagon-hauling in addition ; so that, when it was $1.40 in 

 Bangor, it was selling in Aroostook for $2.50. The men who 

 grew wheat in that vicinity, therefore, received an extra profit 

 of 11.10 a bushel, from their position. 



Such instances as these may be found here and there all 

 through the country ; but, as a general rule, if we go out of the 

 very small circle of what we may call " high farmers," or 

 " fancy farmers," if you please, we find every one growing here 



