48 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



subsist chiefly by hunting and fishing, and mutual plunder. 

 Equally as rude are they in other arts, while their social con- 

 dition is, in the worst sense of the term, miserable. Those 

 who have advanced farther in civilization, begin to entertain 

 the noble idea of subduing the earth, and rendering it, as far 

 as possible, productive ; and those who are the farthest advanced 

 in knowledge and the enjoyment of social privileges, aim to the 

 ornamental, as well as the useful and profitable, in the cultiva- 

 tion of their estates. We see the products of their skilfully 

 and finely arranged gardens, as well as of their fruitful fields. 

 The flowers and fruits of every clime, are brought into com- 

 panionship, and are carefully nurtured, that they may make 

 the soil of their adoption their home. We can see the influ- 

 ence of such progress upon the tastes of the people in regard 

 to other things. Their dwellings are ornamented, not only 

 by flowers and shrubbery, but by the beautiful in architecture. 

 The same remark extends to dress and habits of intercourse, 

 yea, to morals and religion. 



It may be said, that progress in moral and intellectual refine- 

 ment, is the cause rather than the effect of such a state of 

 things, as it respects agriculture. But I ask, if this be so, 

 would not the reflux influence of such an effect — of nature 

 thus cultivated by our own efforts — be as great as what is 

 described as its direct influence ? When the best securities of 

 property and happiness are granted to a people, their success in 

 the common arts of life, thus better secured, operates as an 

 incentive to the preservation of sucli securities. 



The remarks which we have made on this topic, may be 

 illustrated in a manner most interesting to us all, by a refer- 

 ence to our history as a people, and the present condition of 

 our country as to its natural resources of life and happiness, 

 when compared with its condition when occupied by its aborigi- 

 nal population. The forest was the home of the American 

 Indian. He belonged to a savage people, who subsisted by 

 hunting and fishing, and paid but little attention to clearing 

 and improving the soil. His government was as simple as his 

 life. His countrymen were not a people, in the political sense 

 of the term ; they were only a collection of independent tribes, 

 often hostile to each other. They rejoiced not in the civil arts 

 of life, but desired the most fckill iu warlike achievements, or 



