No. 4.] NEW ENGLAND AGRICULTURE. 85 



OUTLOOK FOR NEW ENGLAND AGKICULTURE. 



BY DR. GEO. M. TWITCHELL, EDITOR "Mai?lC Farmer,'''' AUGUSTA, ME. 



In any study of the subject of agriculture or its right to 

 recognition and support by the State two distinct proposi- 

 tions assert themselves : — 



1. That agriculture is the one industry which sustains life. 



2. Agriculture is the only industry that conserves the 

 wealth or permanent prosperity of the State and nation. 



The first is so self-evident that it would need no argument 

 save that it is well sometimes to call attention to the fact 

 that every day we are within six months of starvation, and 

 the hand of the tiller of the soil alone averts the disaster. 



It is well, I say, to call attention to this, because, in 

 drawing our food supplies from the great granaries and 

 storehouses, the thought of the man behind the ploAV, of the 

 acres to be tilled, of the herds to be cared for, of the orchards 

 to be picked, of the study and investigation demanded and 

 of the myriad round of duties involved, the proposition is 

 lost sight of. 



On\y in the days of a threatened shortage, in any direc- 

 tion, is the public aroused to its dependence upon him in 

 whose interest this Board was created and this session held. 

 Well will it be when this dependence is forced home upon 

 the artisan, mechanic, tradesman, professional worker or 

 society man with such frequency that he will feel conscious 

 of the dignity of, as well as necessity for, the man with 

 the hoe. 



Too long this class has been the butt of all ridicule ; too 

 long has the artist's brush or author's pen been allowed to 

 picture him as the illiterate, uncouth, tricky, sharp-faced, 

 sharp-nosed countryman, ignorant of all proper construction 



