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the agency ol" free labor, in uU parts of our wide-spread 

 land. In looking at the agriculture of Massachusetts as a 

 separate State, we find many of the circumstances, which 

 characterize the agricultural condition of the country at 

 large, reversed. There is no over-production of food, and 

 no danger of any such over-production, for our own popu- 

 lation within our own limits. On the contrary, it has been 

 estimated that we are at this moment dependent on our 

 sister States for more than three millions of bushels of 

 breadstuffs, — being a full half of our whole consumption. 



Now, so far as this fact may fairly betoken any bad cul- 

 tivation on the part of our farmers ; so far as, taken in 

 connection with other facts, it indicates a deterioration of 

 our soil, and a progressive disproportion between the acres 

 in cultivation and the crops which they yield, — it is a fact 

 deeply to be deplored, and which ought to furnish a serious 

 warning to the Government and the people of the Common- 

 wealth. 



But, so far as it only indicates a greater division and 

 distribution of labor within our own borders ; so far as it 

 is only the result of a gradual multiplication of mechanics 

 and manufacturers among us, to consume the products, not 

 only of our own husbandmen, but of those of other States, 

 neighboring and remote, — it is a subject of positive and 

 unqualified congratulation. For one, I never desire to see 

 the day when Massachusetts shall feed herself. Nature has 

 marked and quoted her for a different destiny. Her long 

 line of indented sea-coast, stretching out around two noble 

 capes, and bending in again along two noble bays, desig- 

 nates her unmistakably for a commercial and navigating 

 State ; and her countless fleets of coasters and fishing 

 smacks and merchant-ships and whalers give ample attes- 

 tation that she has not been blind to her vocation. Her 

 numerous rivers and streams, with their abundant water- 

 falls, designate her hardly less distinctly as a manufacturing 



