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age crop of wheat in England was six bushels per acre. The 

 lowest average in any of her counties to-day is thirty-four and 

 a half bushels and from this the averages range up to fifty 

 bushels per acre. In little more than a century she has 

 brought her aggregate annual crops of wheat from sixteen 

 million to ninety million bushels and converted a quarter part 

 of her whole area from the marsh, the morass, the wilderness 

 and the barren moor, into blossoming gardens. Hergimt- 

 factoried cities are set like islands in an emerald sea of verdure 

 and fertility. And much the greater portion of this result 

 has been the work of the last fifty yeai's. The development of 

 manufacturing industry in America is attended with like symp- 

 toms of a regenerating influence upon the soil. The tide of 

 migration spreading from the Atlantic coast westward was one 

 of devastation. An improved and fertilizing culture goes in 

 the train of the new industries as they slowly diffuse towards 

 the West, and repairs the waste places of early improvidence. 

 It is indicative of this movement, that in states where manu- 

 facturing industry has been extensively developed in the ten 

 years of the last census, the annual crop of garden products 

 has increased in value, in Massachusetts three fold, in New 

 York and Ohio four fold, during the same period. These 

 crops are grown in the neighborhood of towns and cities. 

 They require the most skilled and fertilizing culture, and are 

 auguries of improving lands. 



The intimate connection that exists between the prosecution 

 of the arts of mechanical and manufacturing industry and the 

 progress of a nation, needs no illustration in this city, county 

 or commonwealth. The theme is a familiar one. The annual 

 manufactures of Massachusetts, valued at two hundred and 

 sixty-six milHon dollars, and structures like these we see around 

 us here, distributed throughout her borders, are works that 

 manifest her sturdy faith. This faith she has cherished along 

 with her love of knowledge and of freedom ; or rather these 

 are the phases of her humane and earnest love of progress. 

 In a diffused and diversified national industry and an exchange 



