828,815 Acres of l)uckvvlieat produced 9,486,200 bushels, of 

 the vakie of $8,205,705. 



2,041,670 acres of potatoes produced 109,145,494 bushels, 

 of the vahie of 199,291,341. 



646,239 acres of tobacco produced 449,880,014 pounds, of 

 the vahie of 143,372,336. 



In 1880, 15,475,300 acres of cotton produced 6,343,269 

 bales of 450 pounds each, of the value of $280,266,242. 



Add to these the large variety of other products of great 

 value, including sugar, rice, hemp, and vegetaljles and fruits of 

 various kinds, the amount and value of which I will not 

 attempt to compute, and you can form some idea of the extent 

 and value of our agricultural products, and to all these may 

 still properly be added the horses, oxen, milch cows, swine, 

 and flocks and herds. It is, in fact, the basis of very many of 

 the other occupations, the oldest, as well as most useful of all, 

 and the one man is the best adapted to pursue. It is the 

 Lord's appointed work. When he had made the earth, before 

 He created a helpmate for man, He planted a garden eastward 

 in Eden, placed Adam in it to dress it and keep it. Thus in 

 divine order putting agriculture before marriage. But we are 

 sometimes told that farming will not pay, that this fair earth 

 is not worth cultivating, or that }iortion of it in which our lot 

 is cast, which is the best portion of the earth, and can be 

 cultivated with most profitable results. 



A good farm in Essex County, and there are large numbers 

 of them, M'ill yield to one who brings industry and skill to his 

 aid, profits equal to that of any farm of equal acreage in the 

 world. This fact you have demonstrated beyond a peradven- 

 ture. The farms of Massachusetts would doubtless bring to 

 their owners as large surplus profits as the farms in the west, 



