8 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY. 



The improvement in agricultural machines and implements 

 has increased the mechanical powers of production to an incal- 

 culable extent. It has saved labor, and at the same time become 

 the equivalent of an enormous increase of hands and crops ; it 

 has elevated and improved the moral and intellectual condition 

 of the farmer, and largely enhanced the public wealth. I can 

 remember when it was deemed impossible to mow your meadows 

 by the hand-scythe without the incessant' backing up of mm 

 and whiskey, and even a common hog killing, or husking bee, • 

 could not be conducted without that inevitable mixed beverage 

 of beer, spirits and sugar, stirred with a red-hot iron, called/t/?. 

 Improved machinery, therefore, has been the handmaid of 

 temperance. 



EFFECT OF THE LATE WAR. 



The stimulus given to production by the late civil war, 

 causing high prices, induced such an increase in the manufac- 

 ture of agricultural machinery and implements as to more than 

 fill the place of the million of men drawn into the ranks of the 

 army. And the consequence was that this nation exhibited an 

 example, such as has never been seen in all history, of a people 

 supporting a consuming army of a million in the field of war, 

 yet not only filling the gap, but actually so increasing their 

 domestic products as to create a larger surplus for exportation 

 than ever before. As compared with 1860 and the years pre- 

 vious, these exports, excepting cotton only, were actually 

 doubled during the war, and thus our agriculture not only sup- 

 plied food for the masses of the people and for the army and 

 navy, but gold for the public treasury. What a proud monu- 

 ment is that to the skill of our mechanics and the enterprise of 

 our farmers. Though their swords were ploughshares and their 

 spears were pruning hooks, what soldier with musket, sword or 

 cannon, performed a more effective service for his country ? 

 For who can say that but for this wonderful spirit aroused and 

 developed in agriculture, our soldiers could not have been sus- 

 tained, and the war might have been a failure. 



