482 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



and facilities for agricultural production here, as compared 

 with other sections ? We see, in the first place, that a large 

 proportion of your population is not directly engaged in agri- 

 culture. They arc consumers of the products raised by others. 

 This not only causes an immediate home market for agricultural 

 products, but creates a demand which cannot be supplied from 

 your own territory, and to meet which, articles are transported 

 great distances. It is obvious, then, that in reference to loca- 

 tion, you possess the important advantage of nearness to market 

 — it being even at your doors. 



The first view from these circumstances, might lead to the 

 inference that your agricultural advantages were of the highest 

 order. Labor is not more scarce or dear here, compared with 

 other commodities, than in other sections of this country. 

 "Why, then, do not the inducements for the pursuit of agricul- 

 ture preponderate in favor of this section ? If there were not 

 other important points afiTecting the question, it might be 

 answered in the affirmative. In a word, if the natural capacities 

 of your soil were equal to those of some other districts, the 

 superiority of your advantages could not be denied. This is 

 the point in which the comparison is least favorable to you. 

 Some may be disposed to consider your climate as alike un- 

 favorable ; a glance, however, will convince one that a large 

 part of the most productive farming land in the country is not 

 more favorably situated in this respect than your section. But 

 in respect to natural fertility of soil, there are large tracts in 

 the interior which are superior to this region. This, then, is 

 the source of a competition in your markets, with which you 

 have to contend unequally. How shall it be avoided? what 

 course can you adopt by which you may place yourselves on an 

 equal footing with those who cultivate a more productive soil ? 



The first attempt, obviously, should be to confine your opera- 

 tions to those portions of your soil which most nearly approx- 

 imate to that cultivated by your competitors. If, because they 

 have better land than you, they are able to incur the charges of 

 transportation and oppose you in your own markets, you must 

 meet them with weapons as nearly similar as you can obtain — 

 choose the best land you have, and devote it to those crops 

 which will best reward your labor. 



