Year: 1873

have taken in agriculture is valuable
not only because of the results it has ac-
tually wrought, but because it proves
that the love of the soil and of the inno
cent and healthy mode of life insepe-
rably connected with its cultivation are
still strong in the hearts of men.


That this is a fact, no caref IL observ-
er of American tendencies can fail to
see. The wild craving for city life and
city customs which has been distinct
i've feature oflAmerican society is dying
away. A new and healthier longing is
driving it to the wall. We have begun to
learn and confess that city life kills good
people as well as bad that it under
mines health and shortens life; that its
successes as truly as its failures bow
men to the grave; that its days are not
periods of healthy toll, but of feverish
exertion which. so inflames the blood
that it burns slumber, which is thesweet
core of night, out of it. From these
causes the denizens of our cities are be-
ginning more and more to look toward
the country. There is a growing yearn-
ing in their eyes for its sweet fields, and
clear skies and wide, free spaces, where
time is divided into hours and not into
appointments, and nights are real nights,
dewy, cool and still night whose
throne is silence and at the,gentle move
ment of whose sceptre the wakeful earth
bushes her noises and sinks obediently
into sweet repose Such longings, l say,
are stirring mems hearts and many are
beginning to inquire why live forever in
this turmoil and strife when quietness
and peace, that finest half of heaven, lie
within twenty miles of me? Impelled
by such impulses, only half confessed or
recognized ana also for the sake of
their children's welfare, the dwellers in
cities are beginning to push out into the
country Strong as this movement al
ready is, it has by no means reached its
full proportions, and / look to see the
tide swell until it has swept half the
population of Boston into the outer
suburbs and the further country. Al
ready the banks of the Hudson, Housa-
tonic, Connecticut and Merrimack are
dotted with evidence Of this reaction,
and in the inland towns the same proofs
are being multiplied.


Another cause also might be instanced
1t is found in the desire of aged people
for work. Ambition and youth love
them. There men plot and plan and
execute. In them strength loves TO
manifest itself in arduous labors and
bold undertakings There hope of hon
or and wealth finds its fruition, and
while it remains as the dominant inn
pulse in a mans mind the man viii
cling to the noisy street and the swarm
ing markets. But when the bodily pow
ers have begun to fail and the mind to
weary of combination and labOrs when
visions of wealth and honor have lost
their power to entice, and man begins
to count the number of his probable re-
naming years and beholds how few they
are, then his thoughts turn toward the
country and the heart yearns for the
place of his birth. Youth is vain and
manhood ostentatious, but age renews
the modesty and the simplicity of earlt-
er years. II have gained said a man
to me once, s'a fair share of worldly
honor and my wealth is abundant, but
have reached that period of life at which
they do not seem so valuable as they
once did nor do they satisfy, and ! am
going back to the dear old spot where
was born to get some quiet and peace
before l die, and be laid in the little
graveyard where my parents sleep, when
all is over.


/ anticipate the action of these ten.
denotes in nature and society with hap.
pv confidence The curse of poverty
| will be removed from agriculture ano
| the fields that are sterile and the damp
| levels that lie undrained under the con
| troll of enterprise and wealth will be
come fertile and fruitful. You cannot
| develop a great and complex industry,
| requiring many agents and instruments
| without the assistance of wealth. Money
is needed, and money is precisely the
one thing the average New England far
mer has lacked. He who is compelled
to invest only for immediate results can
not invest wisely. An interval mus


elapse between the expenditure and the
return, and this poor man, with {
family to support and heavy taxes TtC
paw. cannot afford. The country car
never redeem itself. The cities mus
come to the rescue, and in the persons
of those who in them have amasseC
wealth and obtained a wider knowledge
of men and things than secluded lif'
can give, introduce and inaugurate sucl
new methods and economies as will giv'
to agriculture higher and more attrac
! tive character and richer profits.


hold that it is nothing less than
duty for every man who has been 81
prospered in mercantile or professional
| life as to be able to assist in this under
taking, to join those who are already
active in this direction. Every merchan


in the city of Boston, or in any city


who was born and bred in the country
owes something to his native town. I'll,
should give something back before b,
dies to that place whence he derived TIN
physical, mental and moral forces whicl
have won for him his success in life
| The spot of his nativity has a sacret
claim upon him. He should become
teacher and helper to every boy nov
growing up in the place where he toilet


when a boy. For what is wealth, TO


what is art, for what culture, for wha


all the appliances of civilization If no
to elevate the many and disseminate will
a liberal hand on all sides the possibili
ties of wealth and the comforts tina


wealth can alone supply. The fines
sentiment of Christianity is twin siste


to this practical benevolence, and th


two should fly forth over all the LAM


like companion angels, doubling the fer
tility of every field over which thei


white wings passed.


We cannot afford, gentlemen, to al


low agriculture to pass into decadence


When the farming class shall be consid


cred as an inferior class we have revive,


the disastrous distinctions of the middl


ages. 1t is because the New England


farmer has not been serf or peasan


that New England has become what sh


is. doubt if a republic could endur


in any country where agriculture is no


the prime industry. When wealth an


culture and civic honors have been di


vorced from the soil of the country tn


country itself will have sunk into lamen


table debasement. For it cannot be dc


MED that the forces that originated an


secured for us our free institutions cam


as directly from the soil as the stream


flow down from eur native hills. Th


land holder in all civilizations has bee


noble. A part of the country was hi:


his to love, to improve, to defend. Hay
ing rights himself he was easily educate
to regard the rights of others. Being


lord himself he could not become
slave. Calm of Judgment, economic j