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evous home markets. Already she has four cities and a 

 fifth prospective which are situated along the borders, 

 while towns and villages are so interspersed that few 

 farmers are more than five miles from market. Every 

 town is crossed once and often twice by a railroad, and 

 were the local markets insufficient, the remotest farm is 

 no further from Boston than many men in Middlesex and 

 Worcester travel to market year after year. These mar- 

 kets afford opportunities for bringing back to the land the 

 waste of the products sold from it. The County may be 

 considered as in the position of a farm where all the 

 crops raised are consumed upon it, and much more is 

 bought and added to it ; if a judicious use is made of its 

 waste its fertility will be rapidly increased. The amount 

 which can thus be added to our land is surprising. Al- 

 lowing two bushels of wheat are bought for each inhab- 

 itant, it would require over 14,000 acres to produce it, 

 yielding 25 bushels per acre. 10,000 acres will not pro- 

 duce the corn brought in ; add to these what is required 

 to produce the oats and other grains, the peas, beans, po- 

 tatoes and meats we buy, hay, wood and other articles 

 and the net products of at least 50,000 acres are annu- 

 ally brought in and consumed within our limits. To the 

 waste of all these materials, add i\yi fertilizers that may 

 be obtained at paper and woollen mills, tanneries, soap 

 works and other establishments, what can be dug from 

 the bogs and gathered by the seashore, and who that at- 

 tempts to estimate its value, will say that we have not 

 the elements for rapidly improving our land ? 



Lest it be said that I am inclined to underrate the la- 

 bors of the farmers of Essex, and that they are not do- 

 ing as well as those in other parts of the State, let us 

 make a few comparisons with the larger counties, the 

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