452 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



THE POSITION OF AGRICULTURE. 



From an Address before the Middlesex South Society. 



BY HON. I. H. ■WRIGHT. 



The great interest of this country, beyond the power of man 

 to change it, is agriculture. The climate, soil, tenure of the 

 land, wants of the people, political institutions, hereditary pur- 

 suit, and relations to other countries, all combine to stamp the 

 United States of America with the indelible character of an 

 agricultural country. And most fortunate is it for this people 

 that an all-wise Providence has thus cast their lot ; for in this 

 pursuit is found the greatest share of human happiness. 



The health-giving, ennobling, and elevating influences of this 

 employment have ever been the theme of wise and philanthrop- 

 ic men, and its beneficial results, in establishing the wealth, 

 power, and true glory of a nation, as well the favorite topic of 

 the political economist and statesman. 



The growth and progress of the United States, from the time 

 of the first settlement of the country by civilized man to the 

 present day, is one of the most remarkable phenomena in the 

 history of the human race. That a wild and rugged country, 

 remote from the civilized world and overrun by fierce and war- 

 like savages, should, within a period of time so brief as to re- 

 quire but little more than two centuries for its measure, become 

 the happy home of nearly thirty millions of the human family, 

 enjoying the blessings of civilization, reared in high moral and 

 mental culture, governing themselves by wise and equitable 

 laws of their own establishing, procuring an ample support 

 from the moderate and beneficial exertion of their labor, and 

 constituting a nation that ranks as an equal with the most pow- 

 erful and older nations of the earth, while it exercises a wider 

 and deeper influence upon the people of the old world than 



