9 



.again the same States; and it will appear, taking the 

 average of the whole amount cultivated and of the prices 

 of the crops, by the actual results, that the produce of 

 Massachusetts, of cultivated land, on an average of the 

 whole amount, is $28 to the acre; of Ohio it is |18 to 

 the acre ; of Texas $21 to the acre ; and of California, 

 which boasts of her richness in agriculture, overtopping 

 «ven her mines, gives but $21 to the acre. 



Both farmer and statesman will be led to inquire what 

 is the cause of the languishment of agriculture as a 

 business in the United States, because we have seen that 

 it is more remunerative in New England than anywhere 

 -else in proportion to the amount of land under cultiva- 

 tion. True, we hear of the immense crops and immense 

 farms of the West ; but there, it is a question of quan- 

 tity and extent of farms, and not of the value of the 

 crops. It is also true, that for a few years, when the 

 ^adventurous settler takes the virgin soil, he gets crops 

 far, far surpassing these which I have brought into com- 

 parison ; but then, that is but for a few years, and he 

 tjuits the land which he has cleared and reduced to culti- 

 vation, and which he declares worn out, for " fresh fields 

 and pastures new ;" and for a while, (yet a moment in 

 the nation's life,) this may be repeated ; but, the second 

 and the third generation certainly will find a necessity 

 to retill the land that their fiithers have exhausted. 

 There can be no more striking illustration of this than 

 that which has occurred within the memory of men here. 

 All can remember when the Genesee Valley in New 

 York supplied not only its own inhabitants, but all New 

 England with the finer brands of flour. The Genesee 

 'brand of flour was the only one called for in its- day, and 



