CULTIVATION OF HExVRT'S-EASE. 45 



in tlic feeding of their stock, neglect the laws of nutrition and 

 assimilation, as much as they do in the rearing of llieir fami- 

 lies, they would be pronounced ignorant of their profession. 

 New England is a region swarming with sensitive and uneasy 

 consciences : the spirit of reform is restless, clamorous and 

 importunate: it busies itself with distant toils and inaccessible 

 wrongs ; but here is a grievance lying at our very doors, to 

 which this spiiit may be legitimately and profitably addressed. 

 Reform your kitchens ; reform your gridirons and frying pans, 

 and you will be surprised to find how much your climate will 

 be improved. 



There is a law of compensation which runs through all 

 things; and it applies with peculiar force to this geological 

 structure of New England, which denies to us any considerable 

 extent of vciy fertile soil. We owe to this our fortunate 

 exemption from those intermittent fevers which are such a 

 scourge in other parts of our country; and are commonly 

 produced whenever low, marshy lands are exposed to the action 

 of the sun's rays. Fertility and disease are often found dwell- 

 ing on the same spot ; and we may be content to give up some- 

 thing of the former if we are spared the latter. 



There are other advantages arising from the structure and 

 natural features of New England which come directly home to 

 the business and pocket of the Massachusetts farmer. We 

 have deep water along our coasts: we have a bold and rocky 

 shore, opening into bays, estuaries, and inlets, in which safe 

 and sheltered harbors abound ; and we have a great number of 

 rivers and streams which in their passage from their sources to 

 the sea, are constantly passing from a higher to a lower level : 

 and lastly, the seas which wash our coasts abound with the fish 

 which are the most valuable for food, and thus the most important 

 as articles of commerce. Hence our natural advantages for 

 commerce and manufactures ; the latter arising from the great 

 abundance of water-power which the downward flow of our 

 streams creates. Nor should we, in summing up the gifts of a 

 kind Providence to us, overlook our immense forests, which not 

 only so much embellish our landscape, but are of such value 

 in their ap()lication to the wants of man, and the arts of life. 



Tlie result of these natural advantages is seen in that diver- 

 sity of employment which is one of the marked characteristics 



