1840.] SENATE— No. 36. 55 



the country ; and it will be acknowledged that the country has 

 already suffered much from the fact of large and disproportion- 

 ate numbers having been withdrawn from the laborious and 

 productive classes in rural life, to engage in the unproductive 

 pursuits of trade, far beyond what the commerce or mercantile 

 business of the country require. 



There are other considerations connected with this subject, 

 especially in a moral aspect, upon which it seems excusable 

 and seasonable to dwell. It may be assumed as an incontro- 

 vertible fact, that Massachusetts, throughout her whole territory, 

 with a few inconsiderable exceptions, affords, always, to labor 

 intelligently and skilfully applied in the cultivation of the soil, 

 an ample reward. It is not pretended, that her soils yield as 

 large a return in quantity as the fertile alluvions of more genial 

 climates. I do not say that agriculture, even under the most 

 favorable circumstances, will produce as much money as many 

 branches of mechanical industry. I am aware that it offers 

 none of the chances of sudden and great accumulation, which 

 speculation and commerce sometimes, perhaps not infrequently, 

 present. But the rewards of agricultural labor in Massachu- 

 setts are ample, in that an industrious man may obtain by skil- 

 ful and active agriculture, not only a comfortable subsistence, 

 but his gains will prove so much more than his real and reason- 

 able wants, that in ordinary circumstances, he may early, as is 

 constantly done, enjoy the satisfactions of a domestic connex- 

 ion, have the means of healthful and innocent luxury, raise and 

 well educate a numerous family, exercise a generous hospitality, 

 and lay up a competent provision against the casualties of hu- 

 man affairs and the decline of life. All this may be done in 

 the exercise of a good conscience, with a single pair of hands ; 

 and with no other than the joint aid of a loving and growing 

 household, and, in such cases, the ever sure blessing of a kind 

 Providence. Hundreds of instances, throughout our favored 

 Commonwealth, display these beautiful and enviable results. 

 It is on this account, then, that agriculture deserves every en- 

 couragement which the State can give. It has likewise an in- 



