GRAIN CROPS. 181 



ity and a gradul advance in all that tends to make the race 

 happy and stroni^ — strong at home — strong in the field, the 

 workshop and the senate. The high culture of the soil in Mid- 

 dlesex, and the noble results of that culture, which have been 

 witnessed to-day, arc unmistakable signs of a high civilization 

 among our people. They exalt, bless and sustain. 



Our farming is, and we think must continue to be, of a mixed 

 character. The farms of Middlesex are of a medium or small 

 size, and are in the midst of a pretty dense population of arti- 

 sans, manufacturers and professional persons, who live well 

 and who demand an unusual amount of what are called the 

 " delicacies of the season," as well as a fair share of the prime 

 necessities of life. This fact has long invited our farmers to 

 turn their attention to the garden, and to cause them to neglect 

 in some degree to win the favors of Ceres in the cultivation of 

 broad fields of grain. 



It is the opinion of your committee, that every Middlesex 

 farmer should produce, just as far as he can profitably, every 

 article of consumption in his family — his breadstuff's, his meats, 

 vegetables and fruits. They also believe that the climate and 

 soil of our county is favorable to the production of the various 

 grains, and that if the cultivation of wheat was more common 

 among our farmers, there would be generally more cash in their 

 pockets to meet the miscellaneous calls continually made upon 

 them. 



Upon inquiry, they are led to believe that in nearly every 

 town in the county, that has a population of two thousand souls, 

 between four and six thousand dollars are annually paid for the 

 single article of flour, brought into the town from abroad. In 

 most of the towns, this money is earned by raising and selling 

 other products of the soil. These products are burdened with 

 the cost of transportation in getting them to market, and then 

 from their diminished price the consumer is obliged to pay 

 another heavy charge in the transportation of the flour which 

 he purchases. He forgets that the grain which grows on his 

 own farm sells for the same price as that which comes from 

 twenty or two hundred miles distant. But this is not all. If 

 every farmer were a merchant, as well as farmer, understood 

 buying and selling, and kept the run of the ever varying prices, 

 he might stand upon something like equal ground with the 



