done for Essex County and New England an idealizing 

 work like that which Robert Burns did for Scotland, — the 

 poet renowned also in America and among all English 

 speaking people as the divine bard of freedom. Here 

 Nathaniel Bowditch was born, the self-taught man who 

 became such a navigator that in 1803 he piloted a ship into 

 Salem Harbor in a winter night-storm by dead reckoning, 

 who became such an expert in knowledge of the earth and 

 sea and sky, as makes his name worthy of mention with 

 that of Benjamin Franklin. Here George Peabody was 

 born, a pioneer in consecrating great powers of accumula- 

 tion to the service of humanity, and giving during his 

 life-time on such a scale as the world had never before 

 witnessed. Many are the other natives of this county who 

 liave added renown to her name. And I am persuaded 

 that our common citizenship brings no discredit to the 

 county. Here tlie homely virtues thrive. Here are 

 patriots who carry latent in their blood a devotion to home ■ 

 and country equal to that of tlie best citizens of the nation. 

 Our native population is substantial and sturdy, not given 

 to quick excitements ; it is thrifty and generous and 

 fraternal ; so that Essex County may be rightly loved by 

 its children more for its present human quality than for 

 its historical or natural attractions. Essex County is a 

 good county to be born in and to live in. 



Such is Essex County ; but what concerning its agricul- 

 ture ? 



It is a trait of human nature, at least of some Yankee 

 human nature, to suspect that some other place is better 

 than the present place. When I have in my summer out- 

 ings hunted New England over for the best fly trout-fish- 

 ing, I have found the common report, excepting always 

 that of the landlords and boatmen, to be that the fishing is 

 good about twenty miles further on. It is the habit of 

 some Yankees to think that farming is easier and more 

 profitable in some other place. This trait of the Anglo- 



