414 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



have arisen, and the energies of the people have been turned, 

 to a good degree, into other channels. " It may be doubted," 

 says Chickering, in his statistical view of the population of 

 Massachusetts, from 1765 to 1840, " whether there was any 

 more of agriculture, properly so called, in Massachusetts, in 

 1840, than in 1820, or even much more than in 1790. There 

 has been some increase of a few articles raised, such as potatoes, 

 apples for eating, garden vegetables, and fruits. But generally, 

 of the more substantial articles raised by farmers, twenty-five 

 or thirty years ago, it is doubtful whether there has been any 

 increase. The quantity of hay, of grains, of wood, of beef, 

 and of pork, has probably decreased." No very essential 

 changes have been made in the channels of industry, since 1840. 

 Our agriculture remains nearly the same now, that it was then j 

 that is, nearly the same articles are grown now, that were 

 V grown then. 

 "~ Massachusetts does not pretend to compete with the great 

 Egypt of the west, in the production of wheat, or with the 

 great India of the south, in the production of cotton. She 

 yields here, and willingly, too, to the law which nature im- 

 poses upon her. The manufacturing interest is now a promi- 

 nent interest of the State. Manufacturing villages have sprung 

 up, and are springing up, like the phantasmagoria of enchant- 

 ment, in every nook and corner of our State. Our agriculture 

 has lost, or is fast losing, the character which belongs to the 

 agriculture of a virgin soil and a sparse population, and has as- 

 sumed, or is fast assuming, that which belongs to an exhausted 

 soil and a dense population. This fact leads to the statement 

 of a defect in the science and art of agriculture among us. 

 which, among others, it is the object of this association to sup- 

 ply. This defect is, the waste, the utter waste, of much that 

 is provided by nature, for the replenishing and nourishing of 

 an exhausted soil. In this respect, our farmers, as a body, are, 

 compared with those of Europe, thriftless and slovenly ; while, 

 in the invention of labor-saving machines, and implements of 

 husbandry, and in the application of them to .the preparing of 

 their land, and to the entering and harvesting of their crops, 

 they are far superior to those of Europe. True, much has 



