44 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Indeed, I think that no stronger argument could be offered 

 in favor of agriculture as a profitable business, than the fact 

 that, notwithstanding the loose and indefinite manner in which 

 it has been conducted, it has still sustained itself in full vigor, 

 while if the same system had been adopted by the merchant, 

 the mechanic, or the manufacturer, inevitable ruin must have 

 ensued. 



In concluding my remarks, let me urge upon the young 

 persons who hear me, to remain upon the farm. You may not 

 find the cultivation of the soil to open a vast mine of wealth, 

 but you will find that method, industry and tolerable economy 

 will give you a competence of this world's goods ; that a con- 

 tented and happy spirit will do much to check the growth of 

 those moral weeds which become rank in the minds of those 

 who " make haste to be rich." Thousands, who, but a few 

 years since floated gently on the wave of commercial prosperity, 

 now mourn bitterly over ruined fortunes, and often over ruined 

 reputations, and when too late to go back, regret that they were 

 drawn away from the farm by the dazzling brilliance of golden 

 dreams. 



Remember that while sudden destruction has come upon 

 those who have engaged in the more artificial branches of 

 business, the farmer has remained almost untouched and can 

 still cultivate his land undisturbed by fears of want for the 

 morrow. Put far away from you that miserable doctrine that 

 there is any thing degrading, any thing to prevent you from 

 rising in the world, connected with manual labor. If you 

 would exert a commanding influence over others, cultivate your 

 intellect, and seek to secure, by improving your spare minutes, 

 a degree of knowledge which will raise you to the level of 

 honorable labor. 



If you would seek refinement of manners, first seek purity 

 and refinement of thought ; and never forget that with minds 

 and hearts properly cultivated, the farmer in his ditch, or the 

 farmer's wife in her dairy, may possess more entirely the char- 

 acteristics of the true lady or the true gentleman, than any 

 amount of wealth can give without them. 



One more question remains to be briefly noticed. Is the 

 young man who is about entering npon the business of farming, 

 more likely to find profit in the new States of the West than in 



