408 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



seen an advance. Certainly they have, in the treatment and 

 breeding, if not in the breeds introduced. The effect of par- 

 ticular food, care and shelter is better appreciated, while the re- 

 sults of crosses are more thoroughly understood. Stock is se- 

 lected with more care, and less is left to chance. Much cer- 

 tainly remains to be learned in the systematic rearing of stock, 

 and much less than could be wished has been attained. Still, 

 a beginning has been made. The public mind is turned ac- 

 tively to the subject. Experiment is commenced. Results are 

 being gathered and recorded. Different breeds are introduced, 

 and the necessary steps taken to test the results. Belief in de- 

 cided improvement is a fixed principle, and its realization an 

 ardent desire. When so much is accomplished, a broad founda- 

 tion is laid for a noble superstructure, which we may hope soon 

 to see reared. 



Time permits me to refer to one other improvement only. 

 This is in the mode of transit to market. It is apparent that 

 the profit of much of our farming must depend upon the cheap- 

 ness with which its products can reach their place of consump- 

 tion. In years past, the cultivation of the bulky and cheaper 

 articles of produce, was mostly confined to places near the city, 

 or large towns, where it found a sale. In very many portions 

 of our western country, the want of access to market renders 

 the surplus of the farm valueless. In Massachusetts, however, 

 the last twenty years have brought nearly all its lands within 

 easy reach of the market. Indeed, throughout Europe, and our 

 own country, from the day that Robert Stephenson achieved 

 his brilliant experiments with the locomotive engine, on the 

 Liverpool and Manchester railway, down to that when he sig- 

 nalized the triumph of engineering, in the completion of the 

 Conway and Britannia bridges, the railroads have been develop- 

 ing the agricultural resources, and adding wealth to the farming 

 interest. Probably, in our own State, there are now few farms 

 not within ten or twelve miles of a railroad. They are thus 

 enabled to send many articles to market, for which they before 

 had none; while the transit of what they sell, and what they 

 consume, is wonderfully cheapened. I might cite numerous 

 instances, but those of milk, vegetables, charcoal, wood, and 



