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

fruits to which they give life and nourish
ment. 1t is not less true that the fertiliz-
ing ingredients of the earth stand as much
in need of renewal as the seeds of our an
nual harvests. And that unless we pay
back to the ground, seasonably and pune
tnally, the full amount that we draw from
it, there will be fearful accumulation of
arrears to be settled by our posterity. Our
neglect cannot, indeed, change the substan-
tial forms of nature We cannot shake
Camels Hump and old Pico from their
rocky thrones, and remove them into the
river. But we can destroy their verdure
and strip them of their foliage. We can
make their glorious beauty fading flower
and leave them and the valleys belowthem
so exhausted of their natural elements Of
production and fertility, that when in after
years our children shall go to them for
bread they shall only find a stone. Why,
Mr.. President, it has been estimated that
it would require not less than thousand
millions of dollars, judiciously expended,
to restore to that richness of mould and
strength of fertility, which they originally
possessed, the one hundred millions of
acres of land in this country which have
already been partially exhausted. Now if
there be truth, or any approximation to
truth, in this calculation, how vastly i'm
portant has it not become, that our agri
culture should henceforth be conducted on
more scientific and systematic principles.
How vastly important has it not become,
as an act of sheer justice to our children
and our children's children, and lest they
should rise up in judgment against us, as
having robbed them of their rightful inner
itance, that the practical farmer of our
land should be instructed, should instruct
themselves, should in some way or another
become informed as to the true nature of
the soil they cultivate, and should learn
by what processes and appliances,
by what manures and fertilizers, it may be
kept in a condition not merely for furnish
ing food for themselves, but for supporting
that long succession of generations which
we hope and believe, are destined by Gods
blessing, to maintain for thousand years
to come, populous, and prosperous, and
glorious commonwealth, on the spot where
first founded by our fathers. plant for
posterity," was the saying of the old Ro-
man philosopher and patriot, when he was
setting out trees at so years of age. And
there is something delightful in the idea,
but manure for posterity" may well be
the more homely, but far more important
maxim of the provident and patriotic far
mers of the present day. In feeding your
children take care that you do not starve
your grandchildren. Let every landlord,
every proprietor of acres, remember and
realize that though the fee simple of his
farm is in himself, and that no court Of
law or equity can sustain an action against
him for waste, he yet holds the soil in stric
moral trust, and is accountable in the eye,
of men, and at the bar of God for the de
gree of fertility or barrenness which ht
may bequeath to his descendants.
And more especially, Mr.. President, /.
such a sense of obligation and responsible
ity needed in our own beloved common
wealth. In other and newer and large
states there may be less immediate call 70
such precautions. They have a richie
original soil to draw upon, and much of j
is still in its virgin strength. If they ex
haust their farms today, tomorrow they
may repair "t0 fresh fields and pasture
new" but we have no such ample terri
tory or luxuriant soil Our lands are lin
tied in extentand more limited in fertility
And unless intelligence and science shall
do something, and something seasonabl
and effective, to supply the Deficiencies 0
nature, and arrest the progress of exhaus
ton, we shall leave little but desolatioI
and restitution to our descendants, so ia
at least as our own agriculture Is concerned
If we mean to retain within our borders
prosperous and numerous agricultural class
an intelligent, Independent, and virtuou
rural population,
"A bold yeomanry, their country's pride,
!, Which once destroyed, can never be supplied, &"
we must take good care to hand down gu
soil as well as our institutions-to trans
nit our lands as well as our liberties un
impaired to posterity. But, my friends
. important as are the interests of agricul
ture in this young and growing Repubh
of ours, you, fellow citizens, and farmer
of Chittenden county, have duties to per
form which are higher and h0lier than an
we have yet contemplated. Our father
transmitted to us, baptized in their blood
one of the wisest, the happiest. and hes
governments on earth, and uponyou devel
ops the awful responsibility of preserving
it, and handing it down to your posterity
unbroken and untarnished You have on
of the purest and brightest regulations O.
, the pages of history to sustain. Let L
, never forget then that we have noble an
) patriotic ancestry to be proud of, and cor
: responding duties to perform. The grea
principles of Republican liberty are expo,
ed to danger in times of peace as well a
: in war. Prosperity, no less than trial ma
t sap the foundations of the social fabric
and there is at all times less danger froI
, foreign foe than from party passion, il
, dividual selfshness, and general apath
| and slothfulness. But the prospects ahea
S are full of hope and promise. The countr
saved and relieved from the power of
2 wicked rebellion, will now go forward wit
| all the new impetus which power, an
brain, and nerve and courage can impal
= to it. With a country extending from ocea
t to ocean, and embracing within its limi
Y every variety of soil and climate to
}. found on the face of the globe, the railroa
e and steamboat giving us easy and read
= access to every part and portion of our e,
e tended territory, while the wires of IL
= telegraph, like the arteries of the bod
e sends the boiling life blood of the matte
e to the farthest eXtremities of the publ
e polite. Among all the agencies whiC
are destined to aid in pushing forward o,
It country in her noble career, agricultu
e necessarily holds high and promine
e position; it furnishes the bone, the sine
|, the muscle, and the life blood for our your
It and growing giant. The people of our ov
o State are peculiarly an agricultural peopl
g and the splendid exhibition which we ha,
n this day witnessed, gives us high and e
e couraging hopes of the future. Congre
s. and all our State governments are doil
% all they can to aid us in this work. and