THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 153 



What is true in horticultui'e is also emphatically true in agricul- 

 ture. We can not and we must not longer disguise from ouvselves 

 the fact, that, notwithstanding all our boast of improved methods 

 and improved machinery in agriculture, the i-atio of productiveness 

 in all our older States is steadily diminishing. The process of 

 cropping the land to the utmost, without returning a compensation, 

 has been pm-sued since the first settlement of the country. As a 

 result, the line of pristine fertility has, with unvarying certainty, re- 

 ceded from the Atlantic coast, until it has now reached the very 

 heart of the continent; and, in our greed, we build railways over 

 thousands of miles of comparatively-exhausted regions in search of 

 new fields to rob, and then neglect. It has been recently stated that 

 the agricultural products of an important interior State are actually 

 less than they were thirty years since, although the population has 

 largely increased. 



To this view add the fact, that a ruthless war has been waged 

 upon our forests; that these great regulators and equalizers of heat, 

 moisture, the winds, and even of electricity, have nearly disap- 

 peared from our land ; that, as a consequence, our climate has become 

 more arid, more subject to violent changes and high winds, our 

 rivers and streams are more fluctuating, while the average flow is 

 largely diminished ; and, on the other hand, that insect-life is largely 

 increasing, and becoming more destructive to vegetable life than in 

 former years, — and does not the disagreeable truth force itself upon 

 our attention, that we have been impoverishing aland once flowing 

 with milk and honey? But, gentlemen, it need not, it must not, be. 



Serious as is this view, we have no cause to be discouraged. 

 Chronic as is the case, we are continually demonstrating that it is 

 under control. Our best caltwators are proving themselves superior 

 to drought and disease. It is possible to restore Massachusetts to 

 its pristine fertility; indeed, it must be and will be done; and it will 

 prove to he a pecuniary success to all %oho intelligently engage in the 

 effort. We may not expect to modify the climate, and bring back 

 the former humidity and salubrity, except by a long course of for- 

 est-planting under governmental encouragement; yet it is in the 

 power of our Society not only to stimulate our members, but also 

 to bring under discussion the enormous inherited evils with which 

 we have to contend, and also make public the methods by which 

 so large success in overcoming these evils has already been 

 obtained. 



We should fully recognize the magnitude of the difficulties with 

 which we have to contend, and, in contrast, give constant publicity 



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