10 



spends no time in complaining of hard times, want of 

 means, or the extent of the job he has on hand. Not 

 he. If the times are hard, so much the more reason, he 

 thinks, why he should work the harder; if his means are 

 small, that does not lead him to envy his more wealthy 

 neighbors, but stimulates him according to his means, to 

 rival their husbandry; if the job is heavy, the sooner it 

 is be2;un the sooner it will be completed; so at it he 

 goes, boys and all, from early dawn till dusk — as he 

 finds opportunity — and when it is finished the whole 

 family of the going-to-do begin to wonder how he finds 

 time to do so much. Now here is one reason, almost of 

 itself sufficient to account for the disparity of con- 

 dition between a good farmer and a poor one. Is it 

 not so? And cannot you call to mind living examples 

 of the tVvO pictures here drawn? 



But, do the best they can, the farmers of Essex have 

 many obstacles in the way of their prosperity to encoun- 

 ter. The means of communication from the interior to 

 the seaboard, are now so numerous, so cheap and expedi- 

 tious, that almost all kinds of agricultural produce are 

 brought from a distance in direct competition with our 

 own. The price of butter, one of the staples of this coun- 

 ty, has been depressed the present season, by the large 

 supplies introducd into our markets by rail-road. And 

 the farmers of Berkshire are already contemplating send- 

 ing their hay, in screwed bundles, to Boston, by the 

 same conveyance. 



It were idle, if not unwise, to complain of that which 

 promotes the general good, though it operates at the 

 same time to our own injury. I ask any candid and 

 enlightened farmer, if he would have Massachusetts, 

 if he could, stripped of those iron avenues which con- 

 nect her not only with adjoining states, but with the far 

 West and the far East? If he would have lines of trav- 

 el when they reach our borders, by these avenues, 

 stopped, and the traveller told, that he must seek his 

 way as he can over our soil, for its agricultural interests 

 are too sacred to be invaded by Rail Roads? No ! I 

 am persuaded that your good sense revolts from such 



