34 MA.SSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



other States liave sought for it in vain. It is a condition which 

 our soundest statesmen have urged tlieir people to secure. Said 

 the Hon. Joel R. Poinsett to the citizens of his native State : 

 " Both from observation and reflection, I am convinced that a 

 State entirely destitute of manufactures, whatever may be the 

 nature and extent of its staple productions, will always be 

 inferior to one that combines manufactural industry with agri- 

 cultural wealth. In the first place, materials to a very large 

 amount, which might be worked up to advantage, but which 

 will not bear the cost of distant transportation, are wasted for 

 the want of neighboring manufactures. In the next, it is des- 

 titute of those towns and villages that grow up around such 

 establishments, affording home markets for the produce of the 

 farmer, more advantageous than those at a distance, and sup- 

 plying him Avith necessary articles at a cheaper rate, the price 

 being diminished to the amount of the cost of transportation. 

 * * Where manufactures exist, the individuals interested 

 in their success and prosperity, from their proximity to each 

 other, easily unite their efforts for all purposes of common 

 interest; and good roads, and canals result naturally from such 

 combinations, and convenient lines of communication are every- 

 where established, so as to give to each one his fair share of the 

 advantages of trade. * * In purely agricultural dis- 

 tricts, the products of industry find their way to market by 

 miserable roads and circuitous lines of communication, to the 

 great loss and inconvenience of the former." 



More than ten years ago, an intelligent citizen of South 

 Carolina, by a statistical comparison of his own State with 

 Rhode Island, showed the great advantages which the popula- 

 tion of the latter enjoyed, on account of their combination of 

 agriculture and manufactures. At that time a division of the 

 annual gross income of Rhode Island among its inhabitants, 

 gave to each one hundred dollars, while South Carolina divided 

 only forty-five dollars. He attributed this condition of things 

 to the fact that the labor in Rhode Island is diversified — in 

 South Carolina it is not. And supposing both States to have 

 enough of wheat, rye, oats, barley, potatoes and hay to support 

 their population and cattle, and the one hundred thirty-eight 

 thousand eight hundred and thirty inhabitants of Rhode Island 

 will earn ten millions eight hundred one thousand nine hundred 



