Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1869-12-14

tuted what we hope will prove more useful
and instructive if not more pleasant and
entertaining our annual agricultural
Fairs. Agriculture seems to have been
the first pursuit of civilized man; it enables
him to escape from the life of the savage
and the wandering shepherd, into that of
a social man, gathered into fixed commu-
mites, and surrounding himself with all
the comforts and blessings STRAIGHTFORWARD,
country and home. 1t is this and this
alone that fixes men in stationary dwell
lings, in villages, towns and cities, and en-
ables the work of civilization in all its
branches to COON. Agriculture was held
in most honorable esteem by all the en-
lightened nations of antiquity. The bible
informs us that the patriarchs were farmers
and cultivated the soil. Abraham it is
said was vastly rich in lands. in cattle and
in gold and silver; and patient, afflicted,
christian old Job, farmed on very extern
sive scale and counted upon his broad
acres 1000 sheep, 5000 camels, 500 yoke
of oxen and 5000 she asses. In Greece
the various improvements in husbandry,
the introduction Of the nutritive grains,
and the invention of convenient instru-
ments for tilling the soil, were regarded as
the immediate bouities of the gods. Among
the Romans also, agriculture was still more
respected than among the Greeks In the
best and purest tines of the Republic the
most distinguished citizens, the bravest
generals, the greatest orators, the most
learned philosophers, and the prOudest pa
tricians livedon their farms and labored
with their own hands. And when the
Sabines had advanced with victorious
army to the very walls of the imperial city,
the people demanded that Cincinnatus, an
old farmer, should be created dictator, and
that absolute power and authority should
be vested in his hands; and this same man
who was then by the united voice of his
countrymen vested with the power of all
the magistrates, and who was the hope and
stay of his country in that hour of her ex-
tremity and peril, was found by the mes
sengers who we're sent for him, cultivating
his little farm beyond the Tiber, leaning
upon his spade or holding his pillow. Will
lingly and cheerfully he obeyed the voice
Of his country, and after having raised an
army and debated the enemy, in sixteen
days he laid down the dictatorship which
he was authorized to hold fo7 six months,
and on the 18th day returned in triumph
to his farm. As soon as Adam, the newly
created fathc' of mankind, was formed, he
was placed by the Supreme Author of his
existence in beautiful garden, which had
been planted for his reception, and ordered
"to dress and keep IT,
Thus we sG that before the heaying bel
lows had urged the furnace, before a ham
mer had struk upon an anvil, before the
cleaning waers had flashed from an oar,
before trade had hung up its scales or
gagged its measures, the culture of the soil
began.
10 dress the garden and to keep H." was
the divine command to our first parents,
and the same great mandate comes back to
us to-day from every hill and valley, and
from every mountain and plain in our
broad land This was the keynote struck
by the hand of God himself in that long
joyous wailng, triumphant, troubled, pen
sive strain IF life music, which sounds
through the generations and ages of oul
race. Banisled from the garden of Eden
mans merciiul sentence, at once his doom
his reprieve and his livelihood, was, $50 IL
the ground f,0W lchich he icas taken," and
his in its oridnal primitive simplicity, wa,
the first calling and occupation of the gath.
ering societits Of men. The mighty East
in the days 0. her ascendancy was trained
to this Wholesome discipline, and so rapid
was her progress that long before the light
of history had tawned upon the world, she
! had tanned the domestic animals, had sad
: died the horse, and yoked the OK, and milk
f ed the cow, ant sheared the patient sheep
; and possessed herself of all the cerea
: grains, which a the present time feeds tn,
f multitudes of men which people the wild,
earth. When Cyrus the Persian King haC
3 travelled far on the road to universal con
/ quest and empire, and when by the aid OF
E l27 satraps he administered laws which
| changed not throughout one of the mos
/ extensive and mighty empires that eve
obeyed one ruler, next to war, agricultur,
was the most honored pursuit among hi
2 people. History tells Us that on one occa
sion when Cyrus had received Lysander
5 the Envoy Of the Grecian Allies at Sardis
and having led him through his ground
and pointed out to him the trees he hat
planted and cultivated with his own hands
. and was asked by the astOnished Lacede
monian Chiefain, "and did you plant al
e these trees with your own hands ?" Cyru
: exclaimed, eyes, by heavens, nor do l eve
r 60 to my dinner till have earned my ap
petite by some military or agricultural ex
ercise."
: Lysander saw at once, in these mani
; life giving exercises, the secret of tina
| power which had for the time mastered tn
. | world, and clasping the hand of the virtu
e Gus prince exclaimed, Justly hast tho
: prospered, 0, Cyrus thou art fortunat
4; and powerful, because thou deservest t
5 be-"
:; Had Alexander the Great, in the inter
e walls of his wars, planted trees and dram
water like Cyrus, he might have lived t
d establish the most extensive empire tn
# world has ever seen. But while the grea
r Persian was sinking beneath the sword o
Il the Macedonian, and this short lived En-
e pire was falling with its youthful founder
C new pastime of conquest was springin
/ up in the West, on the frugal acres of Lat
n mum. Those iron handed and iron heart
e ed Emperors and Consuls of Rome, VIII
e drove the Equi and Volsci from the gate
J. of Rome, and led the last King of MacedC
It MIA in triumph mp the steps of the Capito
e were in the intervals of their wars tillin
: the soil and deyoting the power of the
o mighty intellects to the study and practic
d of agriculture. At length the Roman CT,
/, ilization persisted and new one, restin
e on the morality of the Gospel and the ha
y dy virtues of tie Northern races, took i
y place, and has subsisted with gradual moo
) iications to the present day, and notwitl
e standing the great multiplication of pu
It suits in modern times, the perfection of til
: useful and fine arts, the astonishing e,
= pansion of commercial, manufacturing an
IS mechanical industry, agriculture has kel
y pace with the other occupations of societ