The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1851-09-17
Address Of Hon. Frederick Holbrook,
AT THE VERMONT STATE FAIR MIDDLBDuRr
SEPTEMBER 10, 1851.

SEPTEMBER 10, 1851.
Gentlemen Of the Vermont State Fair
When | received the invitation
from your Committee OF Arrangement.
: to address you on this occasion, | lelt
Q such an entire distrust of my powers
and qualifications for the proper perform.
ance of the duty, as almost to induce
me to decline the honor at once. When
t. | considered that highly respectable
and intelligent audience would here be
gathered that it would he desirable to
give such tone and direction to this
volunteer aud preliminary movement OF
the farmers Of Vermont as to lead to q
f permanent organization for the encour-
agement and improvement of the agri>
c culture of the State that high stan
dard of excellence would therefore yer,
properly be required from the person
who should stand in this place this day !;
that my course Of life had never given
me the slightest training for the prepa.
, ration and delivery of public addresses
doubted whether ii would be possible
for me TO do justice to your cause, to
satisfy you, or even myself On the
other hand. I considered that the I'm.
provements Of Agriculture claimed, and
that had long since determined they
should receive, the best Thoughts and
efforts of my life ! that had been in>
vted TO this task by men whom highly
esteem as citizens, and for their zeal
and efficient efforts for the promotion of
the cause which interests me so deep,
and it therefore seemed to me to be my
duty to attempt The service TO which
had been called.
The venerable Socrate. said "Agri-
culture is an employment the most wor-
thy the application of man, the most
ancient and the most suitable To his ma
lure ; it is the common nurse of all per.
sons, in every age and condition of life;
II is the source Of health, strength,
plenty and riches, and of a thousand
sober delights and honest pleasures, it
is the mistress and school of sobriety,
temperance, justice, religion, and, in
short, OF all virtues" That it lis an
employment the most worthy the appIi-
cation Of man, the most ancient, and !
the most suitable to his nature, we may
learn from his earliest history. On the
sixth day Of the Creation, aGer form
had been given to matter, and the veg-
etabe aud lower animal world had been
brought forth to life,
There wanted yet the masterwolk, the end
Of all yet done; acreature who, not promo
And brute as Other creatures, but enducd
With sanctity of reason, might erect
His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self.knowing."
Man, the chief of all Gods works,
was then made. and commanded to sub
due and cultivate the ground. Thus
early did the Creator assign his most
important pursuit and from thence a.
lone, we may infer its suitabeness TO
his nature, aud its superior dignity.
Ever since that ancient period, the earth |
has been the common mother of US all |
feeding all. The productions of its
surface and The treasures of its interior
are the great materials in Commerce
and Manufactures, the grand elements
impelllng the abors and enterprises Of
nearly universal man. TIE cultivation
Of the earth is the source of health
and strength in a degree superior TO
most of the other pursuits of man and
that il is the source ofa thousand sober
delights and honest pleasures has pass
ed TO proverb. Numbers of the pur-
est, wisest, greatest and best of men,
after years OF active toll and usefulness,
after wearing the highes, honors earth
could bestow, have retired TO the farm,
and there realized the sentiment oi Soc
rates. To prove that it is the mistress
and school of sobriety, temperance,
justice and religion, we need not go
beyond our own times and country.
Compare the habits and morals of the
inhabitors of our rural districts, with
those Of the masses in our cities and
large towns, and we hnd the former
have very much the advantage. Then
too, il is notable that quite majority of
, the men who lead in the great business
: operations of the day, who conduct the
: affairs OF state, aud who minister to us
in religion, received their early training
upon the farm. away from the tanning
influences which breed among masses
, Of men, where the physical frame be-
S came expanded, strengthened, and ht>
{ ted for the tolls Of later life, where iru-
gal, sober, temperate habits and sound
morals bee anne fixed characteristics.
When we correctly consider the ans
E tiquity, the dignity, the Importance, and
7 the thousand sober delights and honest
= pleasures Of Agriculture, and then look
II abroad in our country and see TO wha'
an extent il has been neglected, and by