32 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



days of panic and disaster like those of '37, '47 and '57, 

 which ahnost drove our commerce from the seas, and silenced 

 the voices of these spindles in our mills. Remember that 

 the farmer's corn grows while he sleeps, that his bankers are 

 the inexhaustible treasuries of the earth, air and sky and his 

 own industries ; and that, if true to himself, to the interests 

 of the Commonwealth and the command of God, he has in the 

 future but to vindicate and adorn the title, already awarded 

 him, of "earth's and nature's nobleman!" Thus, as the 

 seasons roll round, shall his vineyards and his orchards bend 

 with luxuriant fruitage to the praises of Pomona. "Thus 

 shall the earth bring forth her increase," and "the cattle up- 

 on a thousand hills rejoice," as the farmer returns in autumn 

 "briniring his sheaves with him !" Thus shall our ao^riculture 

 at home, as we trust also in the West, the queen of empire, 

 hand in hand with other useful arts and industries, march on, 

 winning bloodless victories, reaping golden harvests. Man- 

 ufactures shall not be ashamed to own her as a rival and 

 an ally in the march of civilization. White-winged com- 

 merce shall gladly receive her commodities to distribute in- 

 land or to bear them across the sea. Education and science 

 shall welcome her as the elder sister of the household, hav- 

 ing left off at last her garments of drudgery, and donned 

 their own star-gemmed robes as for a feast-day, while liberty, 

 patriotism and religion, shall still cling to her as giving sta- 

 bility to our institutions, firmness to our national character, 

 and virtue to our people, without which we cry in vain, "God 

 save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ! " 



