194 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



talking and writing of this, that, or the other matter — indissolubly 

 connected with intelligent farming — by the question, " What has 

 that to do with agriculture ? " It is not enough to say that a 

 farmer should take such laws and gospels as are made for him 

 and be content, but in the minds of some people he must give over 

 every item of his manifold avocations — he that once held them 

 all — that any other class may choose to take. I am bound to ad- 

 mit right here, however, that these are always but partially edu- 

 cated people. 



Some of us know how the laws of our commerce have favored 

 the transplanting of entire industries, capital, machinery, and men 

 to our shores, and brought them directly in competition with oar 

 home manufactures. But hold 1 Perhaps in the course of a few 

 pages we have made the change of actors upon the manufacturing 

 stage seem too abrupt. In one town, or district, it began, may be, 

 seventy-five or a hundred years ago, in another fifty, in another 

 twenty-five — in still another, possibly — some old fashioned town — 

 the transformation from farm independence to dependence has 

 scarcely yet begun. 



The intermediate stages are sometimes very pleasant ones. In 

 1852, I well remember returning home after several years absence, 

 and going into one of our mills where all the handsomest daugh- 

 ters of the farm in town were gathered into one large, airy 

 room, at some light, clean, factory work. I — I was younger then, 

 and came near going off the handle with surprise and delight — 

 never having seen such a sight in my life. Neither do I expect 

 to see such a sight again in my native town. We have girls 

 .enough, and some as good as we ever had, but so many inferior 

 ones, now, as to mar the picture wherever we see it. That day, 

 •when the flowers of our farms were offered so freely to the mills, 

 marked a decline in home manufactures. 



I would never cry for spilled milk, but I do mourn for that particu- 

 lar crop of girls. Every middle-aged manfacturer will remember 

 them, and what bright, dutiful, and conscientious workers they 

 were. Manufacturers know how hard it is to fill their places to- 

 day, but they rarely think, and I am afraid some of them don't 

 much care for the bloom that went with them from the farm. I 

 shouldn't care myself how many of them left the farm in their 

 pursuit of happiness, so long .as it was the polite custom of society, 

 and the settled policy of the state to keep enough of such at home 

 .for seed. Whoever turns the matter over in his mind, will con- 



