308 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



powerful military and police force, without a word of inter- 

 ference from the magistrates. He lived to overcome the 

 prejudice, and to see his invention adopted. He died at the 

 age of sixty, worth a half-million sterling. At one time he 

 was so poor he had to be furnished with a suit of clothes 

 before he could appear to vote at an election as a burgess. 



Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine, infinitely 

 multiplied the results of labor ; yet the suffering and priva- 

 tions he endured in his early struggles were very great. 

 He was born in Spencer, and died in Brooklyn, N. Y., 

 leaving a property valued at a million and a quarter of 

 dollars. 



There are a large number of illustrious names connected 

 with our country's industries. You are all familiar with the 

 history of those who have helped to swell the immensity of 

 our almost innumerable institutions : Whitney, of cotton- 

 gin fame ; Hoe, of the rotary printing press ; Fulton, who 

 created modern commerce with his steamboat ; Corliss, who 

 revolutionized the use of steam ; Franklin, who was called 

 the electric or lightning tamer; but it was left for Edison, 

 Bell and others to make electricity the servant of the people. 



Asia, with her millions of inhabitants, continues to till 

 the soil and work the shuttle and loom as her fathers have 

 done for ages. Modern Europe has felt the influence and 

 received the benefits of the incalculable multiplication of 

 force by inventors' genius since the wars of 'Napoleon. And 

 yet, only two hundred and seventy-one years after the little 

 band of Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, our people, 

 numbering about one-fifteenth of the inhabitants of the 

 globe, do one-third of its mining, one-fourth of its manu- 

 facturing, one-fifth of its agriculture, and own one-sixth of 

 its wealth. The former, the manufacturer and the mechanic 

 can rejoice that they have been co-workers in this great 

 achievement, and believe that their united action has been 

 the means of making this the most favored nation upon the 

 globe. Let the good work go on. With loving hearts and 

 willing hands, we may yet see New England reclaimed, and 

 bearing with honor and dignity the euphonious title of "The 

 Garden of the East." 



We often hear predictions of what we may expect in the 



