The Portland daily press., 1865-08-29
STIMULUS TO AGRIoULTuRH IN
HTATJEi

tural interests of Maine? Does she need a
better soil? No, as general thing our soil is
good. Does she need warmer climate? No,
our climate is well fitted to the best ener-
gies of the robust men which such a climate
produces. and it is warm enough for the sue
eeszh,l production of all the necesSaTies and
most If the Inquiries of life. The profits of
agriculture do not always depend upon a nat
uray fertile soil, nor upon hot weather large
nortinn of the year. The best soils will in
time be exhausted and few farms in any part
Of the world are long productive without man
ure, labor and skill ON the part of the husband
man Agriculture, as general fact is more
profitable in northern than in southern re-
gions. In England the summers are much
shorter than with us; she cannot grow many
things-such as corn--wllich Maine cultivates
successfully. Nor is her soil naturally more
fertile than ours. Yet farming there is one of
the most profitable operations in the kingdom.
The same is true in the Baltic regions--so ey-
en- in Russia. There are, prcvidentally, agri-
cultural productions peculiar to every latitude,
and, other things operating as stimulants, the
cultivation of those productions is made profit
able to the inhabitants. The turnip and 9TH
er root crops in England and Ireland wheat
on the Baltic, and even hemp and fax in Rus
STA, all brought into connection with the slim
ulants that commerce and manufactures have
been able to supply, have made the lands in
those countries ofimmense value to their own
'ers. We say, to their "owners, mot perhaps
to the laborers who do the work but if the
farmers there can afford to have their labor per-
formed by others, whilst they live at ease in
their lordly mansions, this very fact is an evi-
dence Of the great profits yielded by agricul-
ture. In this country every farmer is land
lord, an owner of the soil, and, working him
sell, instead of living in idleness and luxury,
might be more independent than the landlords
of England. Let man in Great Britain own
farm as large and as naturally productive as
most of our Maine farms, and he would be
rich enough to ride over the heads of one half
of her Majesty's subjects. Why cannot our
farms here be made as productive and as prof
liable as the farms in that more northern part
of the world?
We repeat-our State does not need bet
ter soil or a better climate. These are good
enough as basis of operations. Enterprising,
vigorous men can make these produce good
crops. 1t seems to us, what Maine most needs
to make her an agricultural State, is the en-
couragement of high and ready home-mar-
ket for those productions to which her soil and
climate are best adapted. AS long as a man
can make more money by gong to sea, work
ing in ship yards, shoe-shops, &c, than by cul-
tivating the earth, SO long viii agriculture be
neglected for other and more profitable occu-
pations. But as soon as the labor Of farm
er at home can, by the sale Of his productions,
be made as profitable as like investments
and labors in other branches of business, just
so soon will agriculture flourish, and Maine
will be, what she ought to be, one of the most
profitable agricultural states in the Union. If
the two great interests, commerce and manu-
features, flourish, the third and more impor-
tant one, agriculture, brought into fellowship
with their prosperity, must sympathize in
their success, and in due time rise to an equal
consideration with them. In no Stateo of the
Republic is agriculture brought so near to the
encouragement which commerce and manu-
factures can give it, as in Maine. We have
more sea-coast, more good harbors and navi-
gable streams near the great highway of ma
lions, more water power for manufacturing
purposes in close proximity to navigation, than
any other State The time, in the course of
things, a0iu come--whether we live to see it or
respects will be developed and made available,
and then Maine will be the greatest CONNER
cial and manufacturing State in the Union
The thing is as certain as the law Of gravita-
ton. 1t is tine natural tendency of things.
and temporary and Fictitious rivalries cannot
always prevent the destiny which awaits the
Dirigo State.
Should the plan for the completion of the
European and North American Railway, from
Nova Scotia through Maine TO Portland, thence
by the Grand Trunk through Canada to Ore
gon be accomplished, as doubtless it viii be
at no distant day, then will the grand resourc-
es of our State be more fully developed. 4 And
when the business of the great and distant
West and of Europe shall find its way to our
open seaboard, as it will, building up cities
and filing our ship-yards and warehouses;
when the manufacturers of the country, shall
gather around the great thoroughfare, invited
by contiguous watefpower, we may then expect
to see such markets produced as will attract
people TO our farming districts as the sure
sources of wealth and independence. The
lands of Maine will not always remain at their
present low figure. They must rise ere long,
indeed they are even now rising to a compari-
son with the farms of Massachusetts, and New
York, which are made valuable by the great
market towns ofthose States. The North riv-
er and the Erie Canal have brought the bust
ness of the West to New York and made her
what she is. The railways Of Massachusetts,,
centering in Boston, have made her the third
city in America. But when the great thor
oughfare from the Pacific to Europe, passing
through the length of Maine from west to east,
shall leave New York and Boston far off the
line, the geographical positions Of commerce
viii be essentially changed, and the advantag-
es hitherto aceruing to them will cease, whilst
the sea coast Of Maine will become the Allan
tic frontier of international commerce, where
the business will center that must make her
the headquarters of the commercial world
Is this an unreasonable expectation? Events
will show. TRAM. 81
4i aAaz4----a---.z-z- sal I'll
STABILITY OF GOVERNMENTS STOCKS.
It is a noticeable fact that the Government
securities were the only species of stock invest
ment which suffered no disturbance from the
shock to public credit occasioned by the recent
heavy defalcations in New York. 1t cannot be
said that the reason for this is to be found in the
fact that the profits occruing rom them could
not be affected by those defalcations, because
other Investments whose profits would seem