Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-09-15

"70 dress the garden and to keep al" 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, wailing, triumphant, troubled,
pensive strain of life music, which sounds
through the generations and ages of our
race Banished from the Garden of Eden,
mans merciful sentence, at once his doom,
his reprieve and his livelihood, was. "tC
till the ground from au1tich he eoaS taken,
and this in its original primitive sim.
plicity, was the first calling and occupa-
tion of the gathering societies of men
The mighty East in the days of her as.
cendancy was trained to this wholesome
discipline, and so rapid was her progress
that long before the light of history had
dawned upon the world, she had tanned
the domestic animals, saddled the horse
and yoked the OK, and MIXED the COW,
and sheared the patient sheep, and posses
sed herself of all the cereal grains, which
at the present time feeds the multitude Of
men which people the wide earth. When
Cyrus, the Persian King, had travelled far
on the road to universal conquest and EN-.
pire, and when by the aid of 1877 satraps
he administered laws which changed not
throughout one of the most extensive and
mighty empires that ever obeyed one
ruler, next to war, agriculture was the
most honored pursuit among his people
History tells us that on one occasion when
Cyrus had received Lysander, the Envoy
of the Grecian Allies at Sardis, and hav.
ing led him through his grounds and
pointed out to him the trees he had plant
ed and cultivated with his own hands, and
was asked by the astonished Lacedemoni-
an Chieftain, "and did you plant all these
trees with your own hands ?" Cyrus ex-
claimed, eyes by heavens nor do ever
go to my dinner till have earned my ap-
petite by some military or agricultural
exercise"
Lysander saw at once, in these manly
life-giving exercises, the secret of that
power which had for some time mastered
the world, and clasping the hand of the
virtuous prince, exclaimed, Justly hast
thou prospered o. Cyrus thou art fortu.
nate and powerful, because thou deservest
to be-"
Had Alexander the Great in the inter-
val of his wars, planted trees and drank
water like Cyrus, he might have lived to
establish the most extensive empire the
world has ever seen. But while the great
Persia n was sinking beneath the sword OF
the Macedonian, and this short lived en-
pire was falling with its youthful founder,
a new portend of conquest was springing
up In the West, on the frugal acres of La
tlnum. Those iron handed and iron heart
ed Emperors and Consuls of Rome. who
drove the Equi and Volsci from the gates
of Rome, aud led the last King of Mace
donia in triumph up the steps Of the Capt.
toi, were in the intervals of their wars,
tiiing the soil and devotjng the power of
their mighty intellects to the study and
practice Of agriculture. At length, the
! Roman civilization persisted, and a new
OF g, resting on the morality of the Gospel
and the hardy virtues of the Northern
Races, took its place, aud has subsistet
with gradual moiific ttions to the present
day, and, Notwithstanding the great null
! upIlcatIOn of pursuits in modern times,
the perfection of the useful and fine arts,
the astonishing expansion of commercial,
manu- 'acturing and mechanical industry,
agriculture has kept pace with the 9th or
occupations OF society, and continues to be
the basis and foundation Of the social sys-
TEN. But it Is not necessary to go back
to the fabulous periods of Grecian and Ro,
man history, to find bright and noble il
/ lu7trations Of the power and nobility of
agricultural pureuits. The greatest poll
/ uctl philosopher and most consummate
statesman Of modern Europe, Edmond
( Burke, who saw farther than any of his
! counfrymen into the cloudy future which
hung over the close of the Eighteenth
while most engrossed in the public bust
ness of his country. purchased a farm. and
devoted every moment he could spare to
/ its Improvement and cultivation.
/ Ia this country, our own peerless Wash
inuton, with burden of public care upon
! his mind unknown to other men, and con-
scious that not only the American RevO-
luton, but the whole great experiment of
self government was dependent in no
emali degree upon him, yet gave through
out Bis life more of his time TO agriculture
/ al studies and operations than to any
otber object, and when the last grim mes
seuger came to summon him to his reward,
he was found in his farmers garb amid
/ rbe shades and solitudes of Mount Vernon.
Aud nearly all the successors of Washing
ton in the Presidency, passed the closing
/ years of their eVeniful lives In the digni-
! fed tranquility of a farmers life, and the
| quiet pleasures of rural pursuits. Adams
| Calhoun, Clay aud Webster, the four
great statesmen Of the North, the West
and the South, whose names are the pride
and boast Of the last generation forgot the
/ colossal anXletjes, the stern contentious,
/ the herculean lab0rsand their thankless
stcrltic's TO the public service, in the re-
tirement OF the country and the calm and
healtbful pursuits of farmers life. Thus
if we study the history of the wIso men of
our race we shall find that the minds of
all these master spirits, whose wills have
moulded, and whose hands have guided
the destinies of mankind, have been more
or less eugossed in the pursuits of agrioul-
ture; and that it has afforded them
solace and respite from the cares and
turmoils of more active life. Proud, hap
py, intelligent, patriotic farmers of Yer
mont, there is not a population on the
face of the wide earth so highly favored
in all the substantial blessings of life as
you are; nothing but this explains our
history and makes us fully com prehend the
secret Of our own strength. The officers
and men who fought throughthe Revolu-
tion, the war of 1912, and the accursed
rebellion which has just closed, were
farmers and the sons of farmers, who
owned the soil for which they fought
Yea, our oe0n WuStrjous Grant, who
crushed the rebellion, and who has been
elevated by your free suffrages to the first
place in the Republic, was but few
years ago a quiet unassuming farmer
upon his narrow acres in Missouri. Buts
Mr.. President, [ have not come here to
1atter the farmer, or tell him that his
calling is the only one to which we should
give our attention. And if I desired to
do so, 1T would be rather dangerous ex-
pertinent, at moment when we are with
IN ear shot of yonder vast and extensive
manufacturing and commercial establish
ments, and where SO many of our fellow
men are engaged in those pursuits. No !!
man ufactures and commerce must go
hand in hand with agriculture, if we
would prosper as people, and one must