44 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



and bless the Lord through me.' In like manner, a grain of 

 wheat sown shall bear ten thousand stalks ; each stalk ten 

 thousand grains ; and each grain shall yield ten thousand 

 pounds of the finest flour ; and so all other fruits, seeds and 

 plants, in the same proportion. These things," adds the 

 simple-hearted enthusiast, " are credible to those ivho believeJ'^ 



But if our faith falls short of this millenarian measure, to what 

 other supposition shall we have recourse ? Shall we apprehend 

 some second great catastrophe, like the ancient deluge, to relieve 

 the overburdened earth, that it may start anew, with only the 

 remnant preserved in some new ark ? That supposition is 

 forbidden by the voice of prophecy, assuring us that such a 

 calamity shall never be repeated, but that the earth shall go on 

 in its regular course of seed-time and harvest, and multiplying 

 population, till the end of all things. The seven-hued bow in 

 the clouded heavens, settles that doubt forever. Is the end of 

 all things, then, as near as Dr. Gumming and his impatient 

 adherents suppose ? Are we rapidly approaching the final 

 consummation, when the world and the works that are therein, 

 shall be burned up ? We do not undertake to decide between 

 these alternatives ; we only say, that unless there is some undis- 

 covered error in our calculations, there is sufficient theoretical 

 ground to justify the raising of such questions. We are 

 content to leave the solution of them to an all-wise Providence. 



The Creator of man placed him upon the earth, with his task 

 explicitly set, to " replenish the earth and subdue it." It is yet 

 far from being replenished ; it is yet far from being subdued. 

 But our race is now accomplishing both parts of this mission 

 with a rapidity altogether unprecedented in the ages past — 

 multiplying its numbers, subduing the wilderness, and yoking 

 the powers and forces of nature into its service, as never before. 

 Notwithstanding the doubts which our figures seem to justify, 

 we are persuaded that these two operations will go on nearly 

 parallel, so that the earth will not be replenished long before 

 all the dominion that man can gain over nature shall be won ; 

 nor the earth thus subdued, until it is replenished nearly to its 

 utmost capacity. When those limits shall be readied, and 

 what shall thereupon ensue, we may calmly leave to the decision 

 of Infinite Wisdom. The matter belongs to those times and 

 seasons which the Father hath put in Ilis own power, lie who 



