THE MODEL COMMONWEALTH. 159 



determined to raise wheat and sell it here for less than the cost 

 of production, they are determined to do no such thing. They 

 are compelled just now, the same as any man who has a stock 

 on hand vastly more than there is any demand for, to sell it be- 

 low cost. Every man knows how that is. They are carrying 

 on a very improper system of agriculture, I grant you ; but I 

 tell you that at this very time, when wheat in the best parts of 

 Wisconsin and Iowa is worth upon the average only fifty cents 

 a bushel where it lies, it is the determination of that people, so 

 far as I can understand, to build up manufacturing establish- 

 ments in every place they can and consume their wheat at 

 home. So I tell you now, although I am a New Englander, and 

 claim to be a Massachusetts man, that Massachusetts is able to 

 take care of herself, and has got to take care of herself, so far 

 as that is concerned, for the people of the West are determined 

 to manufacture many of the articles that are now manufactured 

 in Massachusetts, and to eat up the grain that they now send 

 here so cheap. That is what they will do, and that is their true 

 course, I say, much as I believe in Massachusetts. It is the 

 secret of the power and strength and wealth of Massachusetts 

 to-day that she has so many diversified forms of agriculture and 

 so many forms of manufacturing industry. It is that which 

 makes her the model Commonwealth of this earth. There is 

 no doubt about it. Western men understand that, and while 

 they sneer at Massachusetts, they copy her in every possible 

 respect they can. It is curious to hear men tell how they do 

 things Down East. They have lived at the West ten or fifteen 

 years, and they have a notion that the West has gone on, while 

 the East has stopped ; but let them come on and see. They 

 will be, as one of my friends was, perfectly astonished. He 

 said : " They are not asleep, but they have got so much money 

 they cannot do anything." I tell you the West are determined 

 to do no such thing ; and if you find you can raise wheat here, 

 and can use it as a crop in rotation, I advise you to do it. 

 Learn to raise it as cheaply as you can. The time will come, 

 in my opinion, when you will be glad to have learned that 

 lesson. 



In regard to the carbonaceous elements in the soil, it seems 

 to me Prof. Stockbridge provided for that in what he said with 

 regard to clover. We do not understand the great value of 



