AMERICAN FARMER'S ECONOMIC POWER. 4 1 



that it is capable of far greater development and a much 

 more abundant increase. 



"Vermont is essentially an agricultural state. The 

 great body of its citizens are engaged in agricultural 

 pursuits. The salubriousness of its soil and the variety 

 of its physical structure adapt it to the cultivation of the 

 most essential and profitable crops and to the successful 

 prosecution of sheep and cattle husbandry. Other im- 

 portant interests exist, and are successfully prosecuted ; 

 but it is to this essentially that we are to look for the most 

 marked and healthy growth of the state in wealth and 

 prosperity." 



The following is an extract from the message of Gov- 

 ernor Martin to the legislature of New Hampshire in 

 1853 : " Agriculture is our leading interest, and, although 

 our state is more mountainous than any of our neigh- 

 boring states, yet we can justly boast of large quantities 

 of luxuriant intervale ; our uplands are productive, and 

 afford a pasturage unrivalled in excellence. Nowhere 

 can the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of life be 

 found combined in greater abundance. Our lands, im- 

 proved and under tillage, number 2,251,448 acres ; value 

 of farms, $55,245,997 ; farming implements and ma- 

 chinery, $2,314,125 ; live-stock, $8,871,901 ; orchard 

 products, $248,563 ; domestic manufactures, $393,455. 

 We raise an average crop of 185,658 bushels of wheat, 

 183,117 bushels of rye, 1,573,970 bushels of Indian corn, 

 973,381 bushels of oats, 70,856 bushels of buckwheat, 

 4,304,919 bushels of potatoes, and we produced 1,108,- 

 476 pounds of wool, 6,977 pounds of butter, 3,196,663 

 pounds of cheese, 1,294,863 pounds of maple sugar, 

 598,854 tons of hay. Let the young farmers of this 

 state estimate the foregoing products of the farm and 



