32 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



and constitutes one of our national pillars. Not the valor of 

 our people alone, not the military skill of our army alone, not 

 our geographical position alone, has made us a formidable 

 combatant ; — but added to all these the existence of a great 

 western granary, whence we could draw a constant subsistence. 

 I have always admired that territorial advantage which we 

 have possessed in the ownership of broad and fertile contiguous 

 lands. It has enlarged the minds of our people, and dispelled 

 those provincialisms, which incrust a community whose limits 

 arc circumscribed. The efflux of population from the narrow 

 valleys and sharp hills of New England, into the broader and 

 more luxuriant regions of the West, has sent back an undertow 

 of larger liberality, and grander nationality, which has been a 

 generous donation from the children to the parent. While New 

 England has done much to people the West, the West has done 

 much to enlarge the heart of New England. And as the child 

 matures, I believe it will be. found that no enervating influences 

 can destroy that thrift and energy of character which it has 

 received as its most valuable inheritance. 



But more than this. What a stimulus have western crops 

 given to eastern manufactures. Massachusetts has not for years 

 produced one-half of the provisions she consumes. While her 

 people have been busy in every branch of trade exploring all 

 seas, directing the power of every water-fall, lining her highways 

 with shops of the mechanic and artisan, she has been fed from 

 regions where agriculture still holds sway supreme. So long 

 as the production of corn and flour and beef and pork occupies 

 the people of Ohio and Illinois, so long the busy crowds of 

 Lowell and Lawrence and Worcester and Boston feel sure of a 

 subsistence. A more fortunate order of Providence the world 

 has never seen. Bound together as these two sections are by 

 the ties of blood and interest, by common ancestry and by 

 common and mutual industry, they possess at all times great 

 elements of strength. 



Now what is true of these two sections in peace, is true also of 

 them in times of war. Their mutual relations are not changed. 

 The prairies that have fed a manufacturing people, can feed a 

 warring people. The vast harvests, of whicli hitherto so large 

 a portion has been consumed at home, now offer tlieir vital force 

 to a nationality striving for its existence. Let no acre lie idle. 



