NEW ENGLAND FARMING. 31 



NEW ENGLAND FARMING. 



From an Address before the Worcester' North Society. 



BY LUTHER H. TUCKER, OF ALBANY. 



We find the New Englander the inheritor of a land, resting 

 on a sure foundation indeed, but one that out-crops somewhat 

 overmuch for purposes of tillage, — of mountains and hillsides 

 around which the pure air of Freedom must ever play, and 

 that more readily than plough or reaper, — of streams quite as 

 favorable often for mill-sites as for meadows, — of a season 

 devoting almost as long a period, to the great delight of young 

 people certainly, to sleigh-riding, as it includes from the sowing 

 of spring grain to the gathering in of harvest — in fine, tliat he 

 has ample scope for all the perseverance of his Puritan descent, 

 in the effort to transform this unwilling heritage into civilized 

 farming land and deep-soiled gardens. River valleys there are, 

 rich enough it is true, and as beautiful to the eye of the agri- 

 culturist as to that of the artist. But the sea beats on ruder 

 cliffs, and the waters of the rivers come down from less fertile 

 highlands. How many brave men and frugal matrons, what 

 lives of toil and patienc\3 and abiding faith, these have nourished 

 — farmers, whose brains were in their work — farmers' wives, 

 who clothed, as well as fed, husband and sons — families brought 

 up in the fear of God, schooled, and started with this double 

 capital of honesty and the rudiments of practical knowledge to 

 re-enact their fathers' parts, or to take parts of their own, as 

 strong arm and active mind might guide the way — filling 

 counting-house and pulpit and legislative hall, planting cities, 

 influencing the destinies and brightening the hopes of nations ! 

 No vine trembles under its purple clusters, just ready for the 

 wine press, in this clear autumn sun : under your summer 

 breeze, no broad levels have waved, mile after mile, their billows 

 of ripened wheat ; no perennial #erdure shall clothe your fields 

 while the full year completes its round. Nor have those other 



