134 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



service. There are doubtless thousands of acres in the State, 

 many in our district, that had better be planted to forest and 

 left to itself, than to be cultivated or pastured. Neither the 

 society nor individuals should seek to persuade men to cling to 

 farms that beggar them. The society owes it to itself and to 

 the Commonwealth, that it make the farmer more farmer, his 

 every day better paying ; and when it discovers a man in hope- 

 less struggle with rocks and sterility, or other unpropitious cir- 

 cumstances, planted by fate, let it tell him frankly the truth, 

 and bid him quit the unequal struggle. The society should 

 exact of its orators and its essayists something more than praise 

 of agriculture. 



If the society may not do this ; if it may not lead people 

 away from the farm, as well as to it, then it must be regarded 

 as a double tax upon the community. To-day all persons are 

 taxed (a wholesome tax) that our society may receive yearly a 

 sum of money from the State treasury. That it may deserve it, 

 and that the bounty may be wisely continued, the society should 

 seek to enlist only that amount of labor in farming and farming 

 improvements, so called, which in the nature of things may be 

 reasonably expected to be remunerative. In so far as the 

 society seeks to cast a false glamour over farming operations, 

 and in doing so entices labor from other and needful industries, 

 does the society evil, and the State bounty becomes a just 

 grievance to every one. 



I think it proper for our society, composed of such men as it 

 is, that it have higher ambition, and take position in advance of 

 those of frontier settlements, so to speak, where the profits of 

 agriculture, or trade, or whatever else, has left less money in 

 the community than we enjoy. There is a suburban character 

 to our farming that our society may properly take cognizance 

 of. It is then desirable for it to do something for human 

 culture, as it now does in encouraging plantations of forest 

 trees, flowers, &c. 



It is appropriate to consider by what means the society may 

 secure money to pay its debts, to continue its career, and to do 

 such useful service as is becoming an agricultural society. From 

 establishing the right basis of procedure, from the society doing 

 everything in the best manner, and by its very services to 

 extract from the community appreciation and generosity, much 



