34 



TBANSACXIONS. 



nerated toils, how hardly shall " ho devise liberal things for Zion," 

 whether at home or abroad. 



There are parishes, in New England, once able and self-sustaining, 

 now so impoverished, by lack of skill and enterprise in business, that 

 they have lost the ability to support gospel institutions among them, 

 without foreign aid. Whatever may be the moral disposition of the 

 people, they lack the pecuniary me'ans, to pay a minister's salary. 

 That many, if not most of our rural parishes are waning, in numbers, 

 wealth and influence, is generally conceded, by intelligent men, with- 

 out any statistical knowledge of the fact. The most cursory observa- 

 tion shows it. The extent to which this decrease has gone on, would 

 probably surprise any one, Avho has not had his attention particularly 

 called to this subject. Even here, in the valley of the Connecticut, 

 where you have the finest soil in New England, there are traces of 

 this decay. 



Taking the ten towns, lying around Amherst, and including in it, 

 the towns most largely represented in your society, and there has 

 been no important increase of population, for the last forty years, 

 except where manufactures and trade have drawn population from 

 abroad. Leverett only added nine to its population, from 1830 to 

 1850. Granby only added thirty-eight to its population, from 1820 

 to 1850, a period of thirty years. Sunderland only added seventy- 

 three to its population, from 1840 to 1850. Belchertown only in- 

 creased one hundred and twenty-six, during the same ten years, 

 Pelham lost two hundred and ninety-five inhabitants, from 1820 to 

 1850, and Shutesbury, one hundred and seventeen in the same period. 

 If in Amherst, Northampton, and South Hadley, there has been sub- " 

 stantial increase of wealth and population, it is owing mainly to other 

 • causes.* 



It is believed that there is no exception to this state of things, in 



* The following table -vvill show the changes in population, for the last forty 

 years, in these towns : — 



1810. 1820. 1830. 1840. 1850. 



Amherst, 1469 1917 2631 2550 3057 



Belchertown, 2270 2426 2491 2554 2680 



^™y' 850 1036 1(964 971 1104 



V^dley 1247 1461 1686 1814 1986 



Leverett, 769 857 939 875 948 



Northampton 2631 2854 3613 3750 5278 



J^eJham 1185 i278 904 956 983 



bhutcsbury, 939 1029 986 987 912 



South Hadley 902 1047 1185 1458 2495 



bunderland, 551 597 ggg 719 792 



