6 



to our very doors, has wrought a change in the condi- 

 tion of New England agriculture, whose magnitude we 

 cannot yet estimate. The old opinion that the farmer 

 should produce everything that he consumes, and the 

 kindred notion that he should consume as • far as possi- 

 ble everything which he produces, are exploded, and he 

 finds he must adopt the free trade principle of produc- 

 ing those commodities which yield him the most profit, 

 which his circumstances best fit him to produce, and 

 supply his remaining wants from other sources. 



If we can raise onions, squashes, carrots or cabbages, 

 or any other product, and with this product buy twice 

 as much corn as we can obtain on the same ground with 

 a like expenditure, it is clearly poor economy to raise 

 corn. 



If we expect to make our business profitable, we 

 must turn our attention to those crops which are re- 

 quired by our local markets, — crops which are perisha- 

 ble, or difficult or expensive to transport for long dis- 

 tances. We farmers of Essex are peculiarly situated. 

 Encircled by a belt of large manufacturing towns and 

 cities affording an abundant supply of fertilizing matter, 

 and a ready market for every product with Boston and 

 its surrounding cities, within easy reach of every town 

 in the County, our choice of the crops we will grow is 

 only limited by conditions of soil and climate. Here is 

 a field for enterprise that a farmer a hundred miles from 

 market, and away from a railroad, knows nothing about. 

 He must do as our fathers did, — produce such articles as 

 can be transported a long distance without injury, which 

 do not involve too great an expense in carriage, and 

 which do not need to be used at once. We can disre- 

 gard all these conditions. 



