PROSPERITY AND POWER OP MASSACHUSETTS. 81 



Of the means of communication and transportation, it is 

 sufficient to say that $2,000,000,000 are invested in railroads, 

 connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific, and in the populous 

 States intersecting every county, and in some counties almost 

 every town. 



The steady and, of late years, rapid progress of Massachu- 

 setts from a purely agricultural community to a community of 

 diversified industry, is full of encouragement to every portion 

 of our country which is becoming densely populated. It is true 

 the business of general farming has declined, and the system of 

 mixed husbandry which formerly supported our people, is no 

 longer profitable. Farms which are so far removed from the 

 markets as not to be adapted to some special product, have 

 fewer attractions than formerly, and do not belong to that sys- 

 tem of agriculture which is required by a people whose wealth 

 and activity increase in proportion to their numbers. But of 

 farms like these there are but few. It is difficult to find any 

 large section of the State which is not provided with such rail- 

 road communication as to furnish transportation for all farm 

 products. And the lands which are still occupied by husband- 

 men furnish an ample reward for the labor bestowed upon 

 them. I think I may safely say that we have no industrious 

 farmers who are poor, and very few farms, unless it be those 

 which are in the hands of what are called fancy farmers, which 

 are unprofitable. The homesteads of the agricultural commu- 

 nity are in good condition ; good houses, good barns and well- 

 tilled fields greeting you on every hand. Farms which were 

 mortgaged ten years ago are now free from incumbrance ; and 

 even while the debts resting upon them have been paid, it would 

 be difficult to estimate the amount of money which has been 

 drawn from them in the shape of taxes for general and local 

 purposes, and of contributions to all the charitable objects of 

 war and peace. The tillers of the soil here are generally pros- 

 perous, and the labor employed by them is well rewarded, 

 while around our numerous large towns and cities is gathered 

 a rural population whose comfort and intelligence is unsur- 

 passed by any similar population on the face of the earth. 

 From the cranberry meadows of Barnstable, and Plymouth, and 

 Bristol ; from the market-gardens of Essex, and Middlesex, and 

 Worcester ; from the tobacco lands of the Connecticut Yalley ; 

 11* 



