RELATION OF AGRICULTURE TO THE STATE. 51 



them well housed from tlie wet and cold ; of breeding to the 

 best thoroughbred bulls within reach, and of discarding utterly 

 the use of grades ; and in fine, of the best methods of scientific 

 farming. And now I want to see him imitate the manufactur- 

 ers, and bring thought and observation to his aid, and reduce 

 all these things to practice. He has the same advantages in 

 the general. The same wars that have aided the manufacturer 

 in getting rich have doubled the price of the farm products. 

 The burdens of taxation are lighter on the agriculturist than 

 on any other classes in the community. The whole scientific 

 and mechanical world are continually proffering aid in further- 

 ing his progress, and it is his fault if he neglects to avail himself 

 of it. 



If by these means you double or increase your crops ; if you 

 can, with the same or extra labor and capital within your 

 means, increase the productions of your farms and bring the 

 necessaries of life within the reach of the non-producer depend- 

 ent on them, it is your duly, as it would be your profit, so 

 to do. 



If you should apply to a lawyer to save or restore your prop- 

 erty, to a physician to assist in regaining your health, you would 

 consider him a bad citizen as well as a disgrace to his profession, 

 if he did not aid you to the extent of his ability and for a fee 

 proportioned to the service performed. 



If at the breaking out of the late civil war, when our boys 

 wanted the blue and we needed the boys in blue, our manufac- 

 turers had refused to make the kind of goods required, or de- 

 manded extortionate prices therefor, we should have looked 

 upon them not only as unenterprising, but as unpatriotic and 

 wanting in gratitude to the country and flag in and under 

 which they live. 



Upon the same principle, without regard merely to your indi- 

 vidual profit, it is your duty to increase the resources of your 

 farms, and ultimately those of the country. If by attention to 

 cultivation and manuring, and the purchase of new kinds of 

 seed, you can double your crop of potatoes, for instance, and 

 thus bring them into market in greater quantities, of better 

 quality and at reduced prices, you are bound as a citizen of 

 the Commonwealth to do so. It is a criminal neglect of the 

 farmers and gardeners about Pittsfield that thev allow the 



