AGRICULTURE AND WAR. 33 



Let no man desert his land. Let there be, ever and aye, stores 

 abounding, which an industrious and devoted people will never 

 leave unfilled. From those far off, broad, and teeming plains, 

 nature stretches forth her hands filled with abundance, tlie 

 offering which she lays at the feet of a nation toiling for its 

 existence. No princess ever laid such jewels on such an 

 altar. 



In a time like this, let not the farmer of Massachusetts lie 

 idle. His sphere may be narrower than that of which I have 

 just spoken, but it is none the less important. He may not 

 forget the obligations which fall upon him, when labor is driven 

 from other channels, and turns with longing eye and pallid 

 cheek to the land for support. He cannot forget those "vt^hom 

 husbands and fathers have left behind for kindly care, while 

 they themselves have gone on a nation's errand, perhaps never 

 to return. And, in the midst of all these complex duties, he 

 should not forget that ardent appeal of the Chief Magistrate of 

 this Commonwealth, to increase his crops, as he would serve 

 his country and his generation. 



Increase your crops. This is the first and great agricultural 

 commandment. Massachusetts should have done this long ago. 

 She should have done it when all other industrial pursuits, 

 offered their aid to agriculture. She should have done it when 

 her manufacturing cities and her mechanical villages presented 

 their active markets. Let her do it now, in this hour of trial, 

 when if she would do her whole duty, she would feed her own 

 population. Let her do it now, that the day of peace may find 

 her better prepared for all its blessings. 



Massachusetts has never yet appreciated her agricultural 

 opportunities or capacity. Her manufacturing enterprise, in- 

 stead of absorbing all her energy, and taking labor away from 

 the land, should have stimulated as with a fertilizer, every 

 corner of her territory, into increased agricultural effort. That 

 influence which has extended from the markets of Lowell into 

 the fields lying in a narrow circumference around the city, 

 should have reached into every pasture and cornfield on the 

 hills of Berkshire, until as it were, the light from our mills had 

 enlightened every farm in Massachusetts. 



No State has enjoyed that diversity of labor which affords 

 mutual benefit to all, to such an extent as has our own. Many 



