15 



overlook our immense forests, -which not only so much embellish 

 our landscape, but are of such value in their application to the 

 wants of man, and the arts of life. 



The result of these natural advantages is seen in that diversity 

 of employment -which is one of the marked characteristics of Ne-w 

 England society, and by -which none profit more than our farmers. 

 How greatly the agriculture of Massachusetts has been stimulated 

 and improved by the commercial cities along our coast, and by the 

 manufacturing towns which within a few years have grown up on 

 the banks of our innavigable streams — innavigable because of those 

 breaks and falls which make them available for manufacturing 

 purposes ! Towns like Lowell and Lawrence enhance the value of 

 every farm in their neighborhood, and stimulate the industry of 

 every farmer. And they do this in two ways : first, they furnish 

 to the fiu-mer a new market for the produce of his farm, and thus 

 diminish the cost of transportation, which is the farmer's great dif- 

 ficulty every where. It is a difficulty inherent in his occupation, 

 because the products of the farm are always and every where 

 bulky. Here is a man with five dollars in his pocket, who wants 

 a barrel of flour, and there is a man with a barrel of flour, who 

 wants five dollars ; but the two are five hundred miles apart. In 

 vain do they stretch their hands across the waste and exclaim : 

 " Ye gods, annihilate time and space, and make two lovers happy." 

 A city like Lowell, suddenly and rapidly starting up in the midst of 

 an agricultural region, does annihilate time and space, to all prac- 

 tical purposes. And in the second place, these aggregations of 

 population furnish, or may furnish, to the contiguous farms, their 

 appropi'iate nutriment in the shape of manure. Manure is the 

 food of the farm ; and if the resources of our cities and large towns 

 in this regard be not fully employed, it is because farming has not 

 reached the degree of excellence which it might. And there is 

 still another advantage secured to the farmer by the proximity of 

 these large towns. They create a demand for fruit and garden 

 vegetables, and thus enable the farmer to vary his productions, 

 and diversify the somewhat monotonous toils of agriculture with 

 the lighter labors of horticulture. 



We see also in the land of our fathers, from whicli our agricul- 

 ture, as well as our laws and our speech were derived, an illustra- 

 tion of the benefits which agriculture has enjoyed from the diversi- 



