30 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



amidst the reciprocal benefits which all human occupations 

 bestow and enjoy, given l)y far the largest share. In the tenure 

 of land, in the application of forces, in the use of manures, iu 

 the selection of crops, in the breeding of animals, England has 

 exerted all her ingenuity and skill. It is because she feeds her 

 people so extensively from her own soil, that she has strength 

 to stretch forth her Briarean arms, in every contest, and to send 

 her colonies to the farthest shores. 



Turning now our eyes from the policy and experience of 

 other lands and other times, to our own, we may learn our 

 duty and interest as members of the agricultural community 

 of the country. Within the boundaries of the United States, 

 including every variety of soil, climate and production, nearly 

 one-half the industrial product of the people arises from agri- 

 culture — amounting last year to about eighteen hundred mil- 

 lions of dollars. I look upon this as the foundation of our 

 national strength ; from it we are fed and clothed ; it served to 

 pay our debts abroad ; it furnished raw material for our mills, 

 the life-blood of our great towns — freight for our ships, our 

 wealth in peace, and now our support in war, associated as it is 

 with the thousands of manly forms and loyal hearts engaged in 

 its production. 



How fortunate for us that this is so ! The possession of this 

 wide-spread capital, this substantial wealtli, invigorating so 

 great a people, and occupying so large a territor}' — how great 

 its present strength — how large its future possibilities ! Who 

 may not see in it the progressive capacity of a great nation ? 

 Is it not our safest capital ? As I see the lofty walls of your 

 manufactories rise in massive grandeur, at the command of 

 energy and ingenuity, and am told that capital estimated by 

 millions is employed in their many channels, is it not one more 

 effort to add value to the products of agriculture ? Is it not 

 wool or cotton or flax that has ordered this busy palace into 

 existence ? Is that mill any thing more than one of tlic imple- 

 ments which bring the produce of the soil into actual service 

 and gives it a real value ? What the plough and hoe began, 

 this marvellous intricacy of machinery has finished. The field 

 furnished the capital — the mill made it active. So too the sea 

 is stayed by stony buttresses, and wharves stretch out their 

 arms, and the great docks ofier their shelter as cradles for our 



