17 



that tJieij may be inspired with tiiat confidence whicli a 

 liberal education will give. 



While it is dlrecllij the voice of the many that controls 

 the governing power, it is indirectly by the influence of a 

 few ; therefore it is the duty of every loyal American citizen'' 

 to encourage a most liberal system of education, which is 

 the enlightening power that expands the intellect and 

 forms the groundwork for intelligent and grand impulses. 



As the multiplying industries must have ample scope for 

 expansion, and be judiciously fostered and encouraged, the 

 inevitable result will be that the well tilled acres of many 

 a farm must succumb to this incursion, and will, — even now 

 are, — being converted into prosperous villages. And at no 

 distant day, from necessity, the Essex County farmer must 

 increase the productiveness of his remaining acres, or seek 

 new fields. No section is more abundantly favored for the 

 adoption of the latter course, (as well as the former), than 

 this of Essex County, which possesses an inestimable 

 opportunity for utilizing thousands of acres of marsh land, 

 which can be made available for tillage purposes for the 

 production of all field crops by systematic diking and 

 draining. That this has been accomplished in Plymouth 

 County is well known to most of you, and is claimed to 

 have the natural fertility of the best prairie lands of the 

 West. I have had an opportunity of viewing the effect 

 where this method has been pursued, on a limited scale, 

 by some of our Essex County farmers, and the result has 

 been very satisfactory. But as I have already remarked of 

 some other characteristics of this avocation, success crowns 

 the efforts of the determined and systematic, and all the 

 recorded failures of experiments in cultivating diked lands 



