140 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



of $144,000,000, which, however, comes nearly $40,000,000 

 short of being the value of the farms in Massachusetts in the 

 same year. 



Now, these figures also may be subject to qualification, of 

 course. You have on the farms the value of the homes, and 

 you have perhaps an exaggerated value of some farms nearer 

 the suburban towns and large cities ; but, taking these things 

 out, you still have a comparison right in the heart of your 

 manufacturing district, with your choicest manufacturing en- 

 terprises, that is not discreditable to agriculture. 



And then there is the social significance. A million peo- 

 ple are still living on farms in New England ; and I submit 

 that any question that concerns a million of your people, — 

 I don't care how many millions you ha\e in your cities and 

 villages, — any question, industrial, social, educational, re- 

 ligious, that concerns a million of your people, is a signifi- 

 cant question for you as citizens of the Commonwealth or 

 of New England. 



Then, in spite of the fact that the rural population of 

 New England is not the major part of its population, there 

 is still coming from New England farms a great stream of 

 young men and women to your cities. Now, you who live 

 in cities take great pains that your water supply shall be 

 pure from its sources, and you have reservoirs built up on 

 the hills, where the water shall come from springs of living 

 water, and you make sure that that supply shall not be con- 

 taminated on the way from the reservoir to your house. Is 

 it any less important to you in the cities that you shall 

 maintain up among the hills of New England reservoirs of 

 human character that shall send down their streams to you 

 uncontaminated and pure? 



But I like to think of the country as something more than 

 a breeding ground of tiiorough-bred stock for the city. I 

 like to think of the country, no matter what pro})ortion of 

 the })opulation the country ])eople may be, as contributing 

 to our American civilization. It is well enough that we 

 shall have an open avenue from the country to the city, — 

 (xod forbid that it should ever be closed ! But we want to 

 maintain upon our farms a class of people that represent the 



