SECRETARY'S REPORT. 13 



them. The retailer of tape and teas, the drawer of liquor 

 behind the counter, the shocr of horses, had always liad in 

 their mind, a rank above the laborer on the farm, and it was 

 not to be supposed that a position in the counting-room, and 

 the prospect of wealth, would leave them at ease on the acres 

 which had been moistened by the sweat of their fathers. 

 Agriculture, therefore, had fallen into disrepute, and the 

 young and ambitious sought distinction, wealth and power in 

 other occupations. The embargo in 1807, though a serious dis- 

 aster to many flourishing seaport towns, which were nearly 

 ruined by it, and have never since wholly recovered, was, with- 

 out doubt, a great advantage to the agricultural interests of 

 the State. Intelligent men began to turn their attention in 

 this direction, and often invested their capital in agricultural 

 operations. These individuals, in many cases, were men who 

 had travelled extensively, and seen the improvements intro- 

 duced abroad; merchants, disheartened by the uncertainties 

 of commerce, who brought into the country a cultivated taste ; 

 sea captains, whose observation and acquaintance abroad had 

 made known new fruits or new breeds of cattle. Some of 

 the vessels taken and brought into our ports, had on board 

 superior aniuials designed for Canada. They were left, of 

 course, in the vicinity, and to this day, the descendants of Here- 

 fords, so taken, may be seen in some parts of eastern Massa- 

 chusetts. These men, it is true, often spent vast sums of 

 money in building the noble mansions which now adorn many 

 parts of the country, and in farming experiments, in which they 

 not unfrequently failed ; but they showed their less affluent 

 neighbors what could be done, and there can be no doubt that 

 they largely contributed to the progress of agriculture. The 

 war, and the failures consequent upon the reaction in the tide 

 of aflairs, did still more to put a timely check to the tendencies 

 above alluded to. 



The noble efforts of patriotic men, many of whom were 

 connected with the oldest agricultural society in the State, also 

 did much to effect a change in public sentiment. They saw, 

 they could not help seeing, the consequences to which these 

 perverted sentiments would lead. They perceived the evils 

 that must inevitably arise from that morbid refinement which 



