56 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



said that " they would be sorry to see the country parcelled out 

 into a few large corn factories, and grieve to see the stout, 

 honest tenants of many generations driven over the water. 

 But they look at the fields dirty with weeds and ill-cultivated ; 

 at the farm-houses and buildings multiplied into hovels and 

 ruins ; at the arrears, numerous, if not large ; and contrast 

 these things unfavorably with the large clean fields, well-ordered 

 premises, punctual payments, and thriving aspect of the five 

 hundred acre districts. And reluctantly but firmly the agent's 

 advice is followed, and another and another farm — another 

 English household — is swallowed up by its neighbor." 



How encouraging is the contrast to all this, presented by the 

 farms of New England. It may be that our agriculture is 

 neglected ; it may be that our rural homes are deserted ; it may 

 be that our people have not yet learned the true value of their 

 landed possessions ; it may be that the activity, and vigor, and 

 ambition of the young blood flowing in our veins, demands 

 with feverish importunity a more exciting sphere of action than 

 the farm aifords ; but the opportunity which an untramelled 

 ownership of the soil, an unlimited possession of the rights and 

 privileges of citizenship, a system of agriculture and trade in 

 which a strong and industrious and skilful arm is all the capital 

 required — the opportunity which these give, is worth more 

 than all the attainments of science and all the accumulation of 

 wealth, in developing the universal prosperity of a free and 

 enlightened and industrious agricultural community. God 

 deliver us from that distress which would drive our small farm- 

 ers to seek relief and support in the complicated obligations of 

 joint stock companies. I would preserve the sanctity of the 

 household as one of the foundations of society. I would pro- 

 tect the smallest landed possession as the fountain of prudence, 

 economy, contentment, virtue, and as the cherished spot on 

 earth, within which the highest domestic happiness may find a 

 home. The true genius of New England farming lies in this 

 agricultural equality. Neither wealth nor ambition can furnish 

 that power which will secure peculiar advantages to one farm 

 over another. The mechanic who devotes himself to the imple- 

 ments of husbandry, labors here for the rich and the poor alike. 

 We have no system of cultivation which is not open to all. 

 There is the earth at our feet, and the broad expanse of sky 



