26 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



chusetts Lave increased seventy per cent., as the statistics 

 show, while some of our manufacturing cities and towns 

 have doubled in wealth and population, those same statistics 

 abundantly demonstrate that our agriculture has not been 

 idle, but has made liberal contributions to bring about this 

 magnificent aggregate result. 



What has agriculture not done for the State as the pioneer 

 of all its industries ? It was the farmer wdio first took the 

 axe in hand and wxnt forth into the wilderness to make it 

 "blossom like the rose." From the nature of his calling he 

 must ever lead the van in the upbuilding of states and em- 

 pires. And the toil that subdues a wilderness and sweeps 

 the mountain-side clean for the harvest-field, carries also in 

 its train the click of the anvil and hammer, the hum of fac- 

 tory voices, the screech of the steam-whistle and the songs 

 of schoolchildren. Look again. The farmer is no niggard. 

 He upbuilds the State's enterprises. From his broad forests he 

 selects the material that feeds your saw-mills and constructs 

 your cities. From his soil ho gladly eliminates the clay that 

 moulds the brick for your fiictories, the limestone and sand 

 for the mortar that lays them. From his choicest iiocks he 

 supplies the fleeces for your woollen mills. His cattle furnish 

 beef for your markets and hides for your tanneries. He util- 

 izes the chemistry of sunshine and soil to supply vegeta- 

 bles for your city hotels. While, most noticeable of all, in 

 view of receiit pretentious and asserted superior claims o 

 railroads as related to farming interests, the farmer makes 

 even those corporations his debtors, not only by furnishing 

 them his products for transportation, but, by bonding the 

 farming towns through which they pass, he even lays his 

 broad acres under perpetual tribute for their construction and 

 successful operation. 



Ao;ain, aojriculture has benefited the State as a school of 

 patriotism. I need not in this connection cite the traditional 

 and hackneyed examples, the historical celebrities suspected 

 at some period of their lives to have had a weakness for 

 agriculture. 



And then the dignity and stability which agriculture con- 

 fers upon a State. Think of the farmer's inheritance. Not 

 content with investing him with dominion over the earth's 



