atic tillage of the soil to supply local markets with what they 

 require, and for the care which he bestows on the orchard and 

 dairy. And yet I think personal effort is well rewarded, and 

 that the small farmer in favored localities will find, even from 

 slow and reduced markets, a compensation nearly as great as 

 he obtained when his personal expenses were greater, and the 

 wages of labor much larger than they now are. I am aware 

 that great discouragement has fallen upon this class of farmers 

 in whose hands rests that system of agriculture which must 

 prevail as our country increases in population. And yet, the 

 condition of the farmer here is looked upon as so satisfactory 

 in every point of view, that the lesson taught by us is engag- 

 ing the minds of some of the most thoughtful statesmen and 

 publicists of the Old World. It has been discovered that the 

 American system of land-holding, for instance, is the founda- 

 tion of great popular content, and accompanied as it is by great 

 social and civil opportunities, surrounded as it is by the free 

 institutions of our land, attended as it is by the school-house 

 and the meeting-house, and by the constant call to public ser- 

 vice, which leaves but few exempt among us, it constitutes the 

 foundation on which rest great mental activity, great dignity 

 of character, great enterprise and ambition. To the practical 

 work of the agricultural community here, wide-spread disaster, 

 moreover, is almost unknown. The local damage of a drouth 

 or a flood is not, indeed, unusual, but the extent of our terri- 

 tory is such, the diversities of our soil and climate are so 

 great, the disasters seem to be circumscribed and accidental, 

 wliile the prosperity is wide-spread and constant. With landed 

 possessions which are obliged to bear the burdens of heavy 

 taxation, with the wages of labor vastly greater than in any of 

 the countries of Europe, with the personal requirements of the 



