48 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



head, as failure succeeds failure in the cities and towns, and 

 high taxes are succeeded by a higher tax — as our brethren and 

 friends are slain upon the battle-fields, or die of disease in our 

 hospitals, our sons and brothers are called upon to enlist for the 

 "war, And sacrifice is succeeded by sacrifice. At times we are 

 almost in despair, and say to ourselves : our once happy and 

 glorious country has become a battle-field, and we are a ruined 

 people — our end is bloodshed and disgrace. Such is one side of 

 the picture presented, and we look upon the future with dark 

 forebodings. So it appears ; but -while it is dark to the farmer, 

 it is doubly dark to men of other business, and mafty a princely 

 manufacturer would to-day shovit for joy if he could exchange 

 his decaying buildings, his rusting machinery, and his protested 

 notes, for a farm in this valley, or upon the hill-tops. Gladly 

 would he give up the uncertainty for a little substantial soil, 

 with an humble but neat cottage located thereon, that he might 

 call his home. 



The farmer has a vital interest in the war which is upon us ; 

 the title of your land is at stake. Your farm has value that 

 you know cannot fail. Land is valuable, be the government 

 what it may. If our government proves to be a failure, too 

 weak to protect itself, too inefficient to crush rebellion, too feeble 

 to maintain the laws, then the very law which gives you the 

 title to the farm you live upon, may also fail — your title is 

 founded on law, and your hope in the future is in the enforce- 

 ment of tliat law. Our strength is in our ability to maintain 

 our laws, to protect the legal rights of all ; and a blow to par- 

 alyze the law, is a blow at you. And it becomes tiie farmers to 

 raise their strong arms in aid and support of the law of our 

 country. Your all may be at stake; yet, in this contest it may 

 not be in immediate danger, but the encroachment should now 

 be checked. 



But, friends, we trust that we shall meet here again, and that 

 the dark pictures of war and rebellion will be removed from 

 our view ; that we may then meet under pleasant suns and a 

 clear sky, with high hopes and happy realizations, knowing that 

 our glorious old Union is unbroken, and that the old flag of 

 ''Red, White and I^lue," with its thirty-four stars, floats in 

 triumph over every State Capitol, from the Canadas to the Gulfs 

 — from ocean to ocean. And we shall all rejoice that we raised 



