6 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



And now the farmer and the merchant find it unprofitable 

 and impossible, while actually engaged in other pursuits, to 

 make their own clothes, hats, shoes, and the thousand articles 

 of utility and luxury that become elements of daily life, and 

 manufactures spring into existence. The hand mills, the hand 

 looms, and the spinning wheels by the kitchen fires, give place 

 to great milling establishments, and the cotton and woollen 

 factories moved by water or steam ; and again, as with the mer- 

 chant and trader, the manufacturer and operatives are changed 

 from producers to consumers, and the surplus is poured into 

 the lap of commerce ; and, in the exchange and distribution, 

 •wealth accumulates, industry is encouraged, knowledge in- 

 creased, and^humanity improved. Thus, all the material sur- 

 roundings of civilization — all that distinguishes our enlightened 

 community from a savage state, are directly the outgrowth of 

 the soil — springing from agriculture, as much as does the 

 farmer's crop that is gathered into cellar or barn. 



Now, let us consider another relation of agriculture to 

 society, in government. The first idea of law is suggested by 

 property ; and the first property to be protected by law is in 

 land. To the savage who lives by hunting and fishing, pursuing 

 his game at will over vast territories, in common with his wild 

 brethren, the ground is no representative of value. He derives 

 nothing from it, and he claims ownership in it no more than 

 he does in the sunlight, air or waters. It is when he makes to 

 himself a home, and sets apart a portion of the footstool for 

 himself and his family, baptizing it with the sweat of his brow, 

 and sanctifying it with his toil ; it is when he has learned to 

 plant it in the spring, and watch the growth of its products in 

 the sununcr, and gather the harvests in autuum, and enjoy them 

 in winter, that he desires the unintcrrujjted possession for him- 

 self and his children, and sees the value of law to secure the 

 permanent enjoyment of his own — to prevent trespass and 

 thefts, to decide (questions of boundaries, and to regulate the 

 relations arising out of the new order of things. 



Jjut not only does agriculture inevitably suggest the idea of 

 law, but it favors the highest, freest and most permanent forms 

 of government — always and ever being the enemy of despot- 

 ism where the husbandman tills his own acres. AVhat of 

 government there is in a savage state is despotic. One man 



