JOSEPH T. BUCKINGHAM'S ADDRESS. 419 



daily runs to waste on many farms, would richly repay the 

 trouble of saving. It may be reserved for some sagacious hus- 

 bandman or ingenious mechanic to contrive a plan for the pres- 

 ervation of this substance. Its great value is urged by almost 

 every writer on agriculture, and must be apparent even to an in- 

 different observer. The rankest weeds grow in places where 

 the water settles that has been filtered through a dung-hill, and 

 where the ground drinks up the wash of the barn-yard. Would 

 not a field saturated with the same liquid produce the stoutest 

 corn ? Look at the stream, which flows from the sink of a 

 kitchen, and you will see its sides lined with barn-grass, the 

 tops of which wave in the breeze, its stalks as stout and as tall, 

 and as heavy as those of the corn in an adjacent field. A res- 

 ervoir, placed under the spout of the sink, would preserve this 

 liquid, which, however filthy and unsavory, contains ingredi- 

 ents, that, in nature's laboratory, can be remodified, and repro- 

 duced in fruits and flowers, to regale the senses and contribute 

 to the support of life. 



New England is capable of sustaining three times its present 

 number of inhabitants. Some may think this a bold assertion. 

 I have not the statistics before me to prove it, but I have no 

 hesitation in repeating it. Massachusetts alone might sustain 

 twice her present population, if all her improvable lands should 

 be cultivated. Her soil is indeed, rough and hard ; but if her 

 young men, who seek a freer and more easily cultivated soil in 

 the west, or who waste their energies in cities with the idle 

 expectation of a rapid fortune in mercantile pursuits, would re- 

 main within her borders, reclaim her bog meadows, and make 

 some of her rough places plain ; and be willing to enjoy her 

 civil, literary and religious institutions, I cannot but think they 

 would be able to add much to her wealth as a state, and secure 

 to themselves as much happiness as usually falls to the lot of 

 humanity. That so many young men are tempted to quit the 

 farm and the workshop and enter counting-houses and stores in 

 cities, inspired with the hope of realizing a wealthy independ- 

 ence, in the shortest possible time, is much to be regretted, 

 and the result too often presents a melancholy picture. From 

 statements of well-known facts, it has been ascertained that 



