14 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



miilated in the frosty furrow, in poverty, in darkness, and in 

 necessity, in the summer's heat and winter's cold. Then he is 

 a benefactor. He who digs and buikls a well, or makes a stone 

 fountain ; he who plants a grove of trees by the roadside, who 

 plants an orchard or builds a durable house, or even puts a stone 

 seat by the way side, makes the land lovely and desirable, and 

 makes a fortune which ho cannot carry with him, but which is 

 useful to his country and mankind long afterward. The man 

 that works at home moves society throughout the world. If it 

 be true that not by the fiat of political parties, but by the eternal 

 laws of political economy, slaves are driven out of Missouri, 

 out of Texas, out of the Middle States, out of Kentucky, 

 then the true abolitionist is the farmer of Massachusetts, who, 

 heedless of laws and constitutions, stands all day in the field 

 investing his labor in the lajid, and making a product with 

 which no forced labor can in the long run contend. The rich 

 man, we say, can speak the truth. It is the boast that was 

 ever claimed for wealth, that it could speak the truth, could 

 afford honesty, could afford independence of opinion and action, 

 and that is the theory of nobility. But understand that it is 

 only the rich man in the true sense, vrho can do this, — the man 

 who keeps his outgo within his income. 



The boys who watch the spindles in the English factories, 

 to see that no tln-ead breaks or gets entangled, are called 

 " minders." And in this great factory of our Copernican globe, 

 shifting its slides of constellations, tides and times, bringing 

 now the day of planting, now the day of watering, now the 

 day of reaping, now the day of curing and storing, the farmer 

 is the " minder." His machine is of colossal proportions ; the 

 diameter of the water-wheel, the arms of the lever, the power 

 of the battery, are out of all mechanic measure ; and it takes 

 him long to understand its abilities and its working. This 

 puinp never sucks. These screws are never loose. This machine 

 is never out of gear. The piston and wheels and tires never 

 wear out, but are self-repairing. Let me show you then what 

 are his aids. 



Who are the farmer's servants? Not the Irish, no, but 

 geology, chemistry, the quarry of the air, the water of the 

 brook, the lightning of the cloud, the castings of the worm, 

 the plough of the frost, the winds that have blown in the intermi- 



