14 



These views suggest another important and most interesting 

 inquiry to our farmers. It is, whether the great manufacturing 

 prosperity of New England, which is the support of our agri- 

 culture, is a permanent one ? It is plain that our people have 

 a great superiority for manufacturing, in the future, over the 

 people of the other sections, from the fact that the various 

 branches are here fully established and in successful operation. 

 This fact, other circumstances being equally favorable to all, 

 gives to our people an immense advantage. But this is not 

 all, nor the principal advantage which our people possess over 

 the people of the other sections for success in manufacturing 

 industries. 



Industrial pursuits, like natural productions, are largely in- 

 fluenced by natural causes. The peculiar adaptations of our 

 people for manufacturing are traceable to climate and soil as 

 principal primary causes. 



Our climate is favorable to the fullest mental and physical 

 development in the people, and operates as a stimulant upon 

 their strength and vigor. It is not so cold as to chill their 

 energies or to dwarf their physical organizations, nor so warm 

 as to produce enervation or lassitude. The winters are long 

 and cold, in which there can be no employment in the fields, 

 and the people from necessity lead an indoor life. The soil is 

 sterile and worn, and can give remunerative employment to 

 only a limited population. The sobriety of temperament, and 

 habits of patience, perseverance and regularity to which these 

 conditions tend, fit and dispose our people for the arduous and 

 unremitting labor of the work-shops. 



These conditions give to our people great advantages over 

 the people of the other sections for the successful prosecution 

 of these industries, both in disposing them for the labor, and 

 in enabling them to accomplish more in it. Operatives at the 

 South, owing to the debilitating influences of the heat, are in- 

 capable of competing successfully with operatives at the East, 

 and the inhabitants of rich and productive agricultural regions, 

 like those of the South or West, cannot be induced to perform 

 the continuous labor which is required in the shops. As man 



