AGRICULTURE AT HOME AND AT THE WEST. 25 



Thus far, at home, agriculture has been its own hewer of 

 wood and drawer of water. Into a rocky or sandy soil, in 

 uncongenial weather, it has been turned out to rough it alone. 

 No favoring Mill Acts have given it a roving commission to 

 walk up and down the Commonwealth, seeking only the best 

 privileges. In its circumscribed and narrow limits, it has 

 been compelled to utilize both mountain and valley, barren 

 plain and marsh}^ swamp. Tariifs have interposed no dis- 

 criminating rates in its favor, nor have the reservoirs of its 

 power been exempt from taxation as in the case of its more 

 favored competitor, manufactures. Yet, farmers of Massa- 

 chusetts ! towns and legislatures cannot tax the sunshine and 

 the dews that ripen your crops, nor can they levy a subsidy 

 on the free breezes of heaven that fan the rust from your 

 wheat-fields and give health and ruddy cheeks to your chil- 

 dren. Nor can you be shut out from the indirect benefits of 

 this commercial and manufacturing prosperity. A good 

 market is the first requisite to remunerative farming, and that, 

 at least, the w^hirl of these spindles and the click of these 

 pegging-machines secure to you in inexhaustible measures for 

 all time. Nor would it be any disparngemeut to Massachu- 

 setts, if she were styled an exclusively manufacturing or com- 

 mercial State. The country is great because of its diversities 

 no less than because of its unities. It is well that States 

 cannot exactly repeat themselves. Acknowledging all these 

 diversities, glorying in these multiform and never-conflict- 

 ing interests and resources of our country at large, glorying 

 also and rejoicing in the wonderful prosperity and develop- 

 ment of manufacturing interests in this Commonwealth, and 

 especially in this valley and township for the past decade, 

 conceding the superiority of the West as a grain-producing 

 empire, I yet disown and disclaim any christening of my 

 adopted State, or any classification of its interests, that shall 

 leave out and unrecognized the occupation, the harvest and 

 the home of the farmer ! Why, just think of it my friends. 

 If manufactures and commercial pursuits in our State have 

 made all the noise, and attracted most of the attention at 

 home and abroad for the past few years, agriculture has kept 

 her steady equilibrium and advance from the beginning. If, 

 during the past decade, the productive resources of Massa- 



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