10 



our fathers did Dot find here a bleak and barren hind. 

 There is not a farmer in Essex County who deserves suc- 

 cess, who does not achieve it. Conditions change and 

 our farmers adapt themselves to the new demands. It 

 may be that the great West can produce our well beloved 

 Indian corn cheaper than we can upon our smaller areas, 

 but the compensation is sure to l)e found in less work and 

 more profit in our milk, butter and cheese and nearness 

 to markets. 



The free air of farm life does not alone fill the lungs 

 with life-giving oxygen, and harden the muscles ; it makes 

 and develops the brain that is to guide the affairs of men. 

 Some time ago it was the fashion to apologize for Abra- 

 ham Lincoln's lack of training. Short sighted mortals. 

 All the colleges in the world could not have so equipped 

 him for the peculiar work he was raised up to accomplish 

 as the out-of-doors frontier life, which, under the Divine 

 plan, was appointed him. 



Rufus Choate, whom, Peleg W. Chandler in a memorial 

 address before the Massachusetts Historical Society styled 

 "a glorified Yankee", was born on Hog Island in Os- 

 good town of Essex. 



The name. Hog Island, is not particularly attractive, 

 but the spot itself is a singularly beautiful one. The 

 swift in-pouring tides of the ocean rush by it up the Essex 

 River. Long reaches of gleaming sand bars lie at its 

 feet. The blue Atlantic l)eats everlasting)}' against its 

 rocky headlands. 



A plain old homestead with its broad inherited acres 

 on the bluff was an ideal home for a contemplative man, 

 as the farmer, watching the procession of the seasons, is 



