14 



which we treat that vulgar organ, the stomach ; but the sooner 

 we admit the truth, and act upon it, the better it will be for us. 

 I am persuaded that the food served habitually upon a majority of 

 the tables of New England, is such as the rules of dietetics would 

 pronounce to be unhealthy ; and that if the farmers of New Eng- 

 land should, in the feeding of their stock, neglect the laws of nu- 

 trition and assimilation, as much as they do in the rearing of their 

 families, they would be pronounced ignorant of their profession. 

 New England is a region swarming with sensitive and uneasy 

 consciences : the spirit of reform is restless, clamorous and im- 

 portunate : it busies itself with distant toils and inaccessible wrongs ; 

 but here is a grievance lying at our very doors, to which this spirit 

 may be legitimately and profitably addressed. Reform your kitch- 

 ens ; reform your gridirons and frying pans, and you will be sur- 

 prised to find how much your climate will be improved. 



There is a law of compensation which runs through all things ; 

 and it applies with peculiar force to this geological structure of 

 New England, which denies to us any considerable extent of 

 very fertile soil. We owe to this our fortunate exemption from 

 those intermittent fevers which are such a scourge in other parts 

 of our country ; and are commonly produced whenever low, 

 marshy lands are exposed to the action of the sun's rays. Fer- 

 tihty and disease are often found dwelling on the same spot ; and 

 we may be content to give up something of the former if we are 

 spared the latter. 



There are other advantages arising from the structure and nat- 

 ural features of New England which come directly home to the 

 business and pocket of the Massachusetts farmer. We have deep 

 water along our coasts : we have a bold and rocky shore, opening 

 into bays, estuaries, and inlets, in which safe and sheltered har- 

 bors abound ; and we have a great number of rivers and streams 

 which in their passage from tbeir sources to the sea, are constant- 

 ly passing from a higher to a lower level : and lastly, the seas 

 which wash our coasts abound with the fish which are the most 

 valuable for food, and thus the most important as articles of com- 

 merce. Hence our natural advantages for commerce and manu- 

 factures ; the latter arising from the great abundance of water 

 power which the downward flow of our streams creates. Nor 

 should we, in summing up the gifts of a kind Providence to us, 



