CHAPTER II.

Agricultural Development.

ITS RELATIONS TO LOCAL COLONIZATION,

AND THE

UNIMPROVED LANDS OF NEW JERSEY.

NEW AND DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES

ESSENTIAL TO GENERAL PROSPERITY.

CHAPTER II.

AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT; ITS RELATIONS TO LOCAL COLONIZATION AND THE UNIMPROVED LANDS OF NEW JERSEY; NEW AND DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES ESSENTIAL TO GENERAL PROSPERITY.

"Wealth arising from the solid improvements of agriculture is most durable. No equal capital puts into motion a greater quantity of productive labor than that of the farmer. Not only his servants, but his cattle, become producers. Nature, too, labors along with man. Her work remains as a gain after deducting everything which can be regarded as the work of

man."*

The State of New Jersey has a rich heritage in her unimproved lands, the aggregate of which is equal to one-third the area of the State, and the bulk of it lies in the southerly section, with such an uncomely surface as to elicit from a multitude of non-resident observers, disparaging contrasts. And yet, it would be inexecusable in us to arraign the projectors of some of the main-lines of travel across our domain for being the unconscious promoters of misconception in reference to the natural resources of sections of our State.

It is believed that the functions of this new State Department cannot be more usefully employed than in an endeavor to advance agricultural and mechanical industries, neither of which have much more than approximated their maximum develop

*Adam Smith.

ment. We propose on the present occasion to give attention to agriculture.

Since agriculture is regarded as the "basis of all industries and the primary source of all wealth," no State can afford to be indifferent to its development, in proportion to the sufficiency of climate, soil and other inherent advantages possessed. Our State cannot become an agricultural State in the sense that many of the far Western States are. It is probable however, we can diversify and prosecute this industry with great advantage, until cereal products for domestic consumption, are supplanted by the West.

We started with a terse tribute to agriculture, not easily disproved. It is obviously true that rural life and rural occupations give promise of the highest measure of health and rational happiness, together with opportunities for moral and social improvement and elevation, to the extent of one's taste and aptitude therefor. We do not therefore cease to wonder that multi. tudes in the greatest extremity of city impoverishment and enforced idleness, persistently, and with the most stolid indifference resist appeals in the face of pressing want, to exchange the uncertainties and inevitable discomforts of a city life, for a reasonable if not absolute certainty of betterment in whatever constitutes manliness, independence and competency, acquirements well-nigh inseparable from an industrious and frugal life devoted to agriculture.

It cannot be disguised that the industrial crisis which has paralyzed our national vitality is the legitimate offspring of an unwonted expansion of manufacturing industries. That production and consumption are unequal, is a stale announcement, but it has, nevertheless, subverted prosperity for an indefinite period, and entailed aggravated discontent and suffering upon all industrial communities.

The absorbing question in the public mind is not only how shall we increase the demand for labor and the products of labor, but how shall labor be better rewarded?

Mr. Wells, through the medium of the North American Review enquires: "What is to be done with the labor that improved machinery and methods have made in excess of demand?" He replies: "Most certainly either in one of two

alternatives. Either new wants have got to be found or created, for the supplying of which a larger field for the employment will be afforded than now exists, or else the emigration of labor from the country and the formation of a permanent pauper class among us will begin."

We cannot couple excessive agricultural expansion with that of manufactures for the possibility does not exist, and it is questionable whether the products of the soil in this country could ever reach a maximum that would occasion embarrassment to the tillers of our vast landed domain, only in the ratio that excessive production will diminish profits in agricultural pursuits, no less than in others.

While agriculture does not rank among pursuits which captivate the wealth-seekers and the ease-lovers, when sufficiently diversified, it is second to none in its immunity from perilous vicissitudes, and in its assurances of a fair average remuneration for capital and labor devoted to its prosecution. The average agriculturalist seldom has occasion to be otherwise than hopeful that his annual resources will be adequate to the maintenance of his family. With ample capital, in combination with educational and tasteful acquirements, there is no pursuit more compatible with leisure and personal gratification, and no investment more utterly safe and statedly remunerative, than agriculture. But it no longer needs extended laudation. Its importance and magnitude have universal recognition, but never, as a source and basis of national wealth, has it been so impressively illustrated and diversified on this side the Atlantic, as in Agricultural Hall at Philadelphia two years ago. All American industries received a new impulse at our Centennial. The sources of competition in all the varied departments of industry were there brought tangibly in competitive view not only to elicit our admiration, but to startle us with occular proof that achievements in industry and science, are shared with us in a greater or less degree, by all civilized nations. Perhaps the Agricultural Hall exhibit was more assuredly serviceable to this country at large, than any other collective display within the park.

Before we come to the specific design of this paper, we have to indulge in a little more generalization, with the view to en