52 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. [March, 



exclusively used. Wheat flour was then comparatively a lux- 

 ury. Now brown bread, as it is termed, is almost banished 

 from use. No farmer gets along without his superfine flour, 

 his bolted wheat ; and the poorest family are not satisfied, and 

 will not be satisfied, without their Avheat or flour bread. This 

 general change in the habits of the people was nearly contem- 

 poraneous with the completion of the great Western Canal 

 in New York, by which the abundant products of those rich 

 wheat districts of country, which the canal opened, became 

 accessible ; and the supplies of their finest wheat and wheaten 

 flour were brought directly to our doors, and carried, at the 

 expense of a heavy freight, into every part of the interior of 

 New England, even to distances of more than a hundred miles 

 from the sea shore. The brands of the Rochester mills are 

 almost as familiarly known on the upper waters of the Con- 

 necticut as on the Hudson ; and are found as constantly in the 

 gorge of the White Mountains and the valleys of Vermont as 

 in the stores of New York and Albany. Indeed, wheat flour 

 has become among us as much an article of first necessity as 

 meat and clothing, and therefore, on grounds of sound political 

 economy, it is matter of the highest consideration to supply, if 

 practicable, our own wants. 



This position has been strongly controverted. It has been 

 maintained, that instead of attempting to raise wheat, it wcmd 

 be better to apply ourselves to some branch of mechanical or 

 manufacturing industry, which v/ould give us the means of 

 purchasing our bread from countries whose climate and soil are 

 more congenial than our own to its production. There is 

 some plausibility and a measure of truth in this position ; but 

 it cannot be admitted without material qualifications. The true 

 prosperity either of an individual, a family, or a larger commu- 

 nity, is not to be measured by any standard of dollars and 

 cents. We know to what a great extent an opposite opinion 

 has prevailed among us, and how disastrous its influence has 

 proved upon our habits and morals. Severe experience, it is 

 hoped, will disabuse us of this error ; and we shall presently come 



