82 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



power of an overruling Providence, and his tendency is towards 

 a religious sense of gratitude ; he is obliged to study the 

 operations of nature, and his perceptions become acute ; he 

 knows the protection which he receives from his country, and 

 he becomes loyal ; he is by the very accident of his birth 

 attached to the spot of his nativity, and he becomes one of that 

 permanent population which receives the proud title of yeomanry. 

 Now it is not alone that this man occupies the position from 

 which society begins, but he also preserves that ground upon 

 which society rests. He is constantly building up what other 

 occupations are tearing down. The toil and depression of 

 associated life in cities, the weary confinement of the mechanic 

 arts and manufactures, the destruction of the seas, are all 

 making draughts upon human life which agriculture is called 

 upon to supply. In the heated and restless existence of 

 workshops and mills, passions are engendered which are always 

 at war upon those safe and reliable characteristics found in the 

 rural population. Against all that enervates, undermines and 

 demoralizes society, agriculture offers the protection of undying 

 vigor, rugged intelligence, and stern and sagacious virtues. A 

 community of successful farmers understand the value of 

 education — they must have school-houses. They know the 

 high worth of morality and religion — they build churches. 

 The hum of the busy town reaches their ears, and they hear 

 that all around the great palaces of manufacturing wealthy 

 poverty and ignorance and crime cluster in horrid groups, and 

 agriculture stretches forth her hand to feed the hungry and 

 clothe the naked, pouring forth her harvests to enrich a country, 

 and to enable it to protect its poor, and educate its ignorant^ 

 Do you wonder then that England sets so high a value upon 

 her agricultural interests ? She knows too well whence comes 

 those qualities which make her a great people. Society there, 

 as well as in our own country, recognizes its true foundation, 

 and however high it may rise, however brilliant may be the 

 elegance and refinement of life, however elevated it may become 

 in thought, however pure it may be in life, amidst the dreams 

 of poets, and the designs of the ambitious, it always receives 

 new vigor and new life from contact with its great mother. 



Do not understand me to say that the characteristics which 

 agriculture develops are all high and noble and useful. Like 



