18 BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE. [Pul). Doc. 



Out of agriculture, however, the sterling New England 

 character has been formed. It was life on the New England 

 farms that developed the wonderful spirit of independence 

 and progress which has made Massachusetts the truest 

 example of an enlightened Commonwealth. There is urgent 

 need that the people of the present age should not despise 

 the day of small things, should not look with contempt 

 upon the humble but sturdy calling of those who cultivate 

 the soil. On the contrary, every possible effort should be 

 made to dignify that calling and to promote a more abundant 

 return to those engaged in it. 



A prominent clergyman, in his Thanksgiving address in 

 Boston a few days ago, spoke these words of warning, — 

 and I wish I might have your undivided attention while I 

 read them : " The spirit that owned in all the earth no King 

 but God still lives, — but where? Not in its old seats. 

 Not in the farms of New York, and the hills of New England. 

 It needs no didactic article to warn us of the change. 

 Deserted farms ! Empty churches ! Utter ignorance ! Vice! 

 It needs no stories of Miss AVilkins to emphasize the dreary 

 barrenness. They are there, — the shells of Puritanism, 

 white, hard, naiTow, lying dead and bare upon the beach, 

 and the tide is out. Ashes left by an onward-sweeping 

 fire, — ashes, cold, and dead, and gray. I can take you to 

 valleys shut in by the old New England hills where there 

 is more rottenness than in the New York slums. Nothing 

 but dregs of life, reeking with impurity ! " 



This seems almost like the lamentation of a Jeremiah. 

 We must heed it, although we dispute it. We are not ready 

 to accept these words except as an exaggeration and as a 

 warning. Although there may be sad exceptions, yet the 

 words of the old Roman Cato still are true: "The agri- 

 cultural population produces the bravest men, the most 

 valiant soldiers, and a class of citizens the least given of all 

 to evil designs." 



No board of officials has, it seems to me, a higher and a 

 more important duty than that which belongs to the State 

 Board of Agriculture, — to counteract in every way possible 

 the conditions that tend to make life on a Massachusetts 



