The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-09-08
Address of the Hon. George II. Lore
ing mt the opening of the New
England fair.


10 the customary formalities Of opening
the annual exhibition of our society. For
the tenth time in the same number of the
successive years, we have now assembled
for this service. The place and time are
both suspicious. After making the circuit
of the New England States, and uniting
ourselves agrceably and successfully with
two of the local societies of Massachu-
sets, we have established ourselves here,
within the shadows of the great metropolis
to perform alone work which has been so
often well done in connection with others.
The spot on which we have located our cx-
hibitiop, is part Of small section OF tnis
Commonwealth, in which the relations OF
various industries and arts oil lie are es-
established in a most important ana interest
ing manner, and in which the CULTIVATION
of the earth is most accurately conducted,
both for the support OF man IN prontaDie
business and for the bcautifying of his
home with all the taste and skill of which
he IL capable For nearly two centuries
and half. the generations of men occupy
inc the lands which lie within the circuit Of
This visible horizon, have been engaged in
developing free and prosperous Commu-
nity-a community in which every man may
exercise his rights and enjoy the highest
privileges, and in which material prosper
ity alone cannot elevate, nor material adj
versty degrade. The work of education
has been carried on here with n determine
ton TO develop the mind of man to its ut
most capacity and every highway and by
path before lis has rcsoundcd TO the foot
fall of an illustrous host of American schol-
ars. Here commerce found its earliest pat
rons on these shores, the Boston merchant
standing foremost as Il representative OF
Mcdford shp-builder taking the lead in the
intricacics Of strong and graceful naval
architecture. All around us manufactures
and the mechanic arts have risen from small
and feeble beginnings to vast proportions,
employing busy and prosperous multitude
of laborers and artisans, and creating large
accumulations of substantial wealth. The
system of agriculture which has been de-
vclopcd here is almost uncqualled IN its
careful and systematic management, IN It's
skilful application to small and well Gull
,vatcd lands, and in its prosperity rs n
branch of business, as well as i'll Its init
mate connection with agriculture and the
most elaborate art of landscape gardening.
Nowhere can be found a better illustration
of the benefit which Il prudent and wise
cultivator of the soil can derive from q
thriving and populous and various commu-
nifty, ready and glad to contribute from
their earnings and incomes an ample com
pensation to him for the fruits of his in
dustry. The profits which are derived from
every branch Of agricultural industry ap-
plicable to this soil, and accordant with this
market, the yield Of the garden and the
orchard, the hot-bed and the vegetable
patch, illustrates exactly that mode of til
iagc which has always been, and will al
ways be, remunerativc, and which is cspcc-
tally adapted to the conditions of free and
responsible, and intelligent owners OF the
soil. Everything here established on the
hest foundation, an intelligent possession of
land, the best personal relation between
the farmer and the land he tills.' And
while casual observer might possibly con-
slider this spot surrounded as it is by every
other industry besides farming, somewhat
inappropriate for scene like this, You who
are in search of that system of agriculture
which is peculiarly American, will find it
here. where the highest skill will receive
its reward, where the temptations of large
and half-cultivated farms are small, where
science must enter into the " ork, and where
the fluctuations of the great markets for sta
pies are unfelt, and the trials of travel and
transportation are unknown.
have dwell so often upon the inliyid.
ual ana SOCIAL ADVANTAGES when attend our
system of landholdinp. and am unwilling
to enlarge upon it here. am reluctant
even to refer to it. But find in it, and in
the modes Of agriculture that 90 along with
it, so many remedies for serious difficulties
and causes of complaint that l venture to
present it, especially here when prosperity
and content among landholdcrs are every
where visible. l am aware that social elc-
ovation and individual thrift do not ALWAYS
attend small landholding; the condition of
the French peasantry, enioying as they do
the minutest subdivision of lands, would
refute any such theory. | am aware. also.
that large landholding is not always attend.
ed by a privileged class on the one hand and
a dcpendency on the other: for the social
relations existing among the great land
holders cf the West and the Pacific slope
would refute theory. But il ia amonp the
small farms conveniently located to n mar
ket that 7 find n rural population. supcrior
in every respect to the population of France
and free from the difficulties and uncertain
ties which surround the producers of 40.
ricu,tural staples in the broad. fertile and
sparsely settled regions. where local mar
kets are unknown, and where the transpOr-
ter and the Spectator have every advantage.
If you would look for the highest agIicul-
producer meets the consumer face to face,
and is entirely free from the power of any
intermediate agent. If you would look for
the most intelligent rural population you
must go where every farmer is the owner
of the soil he cultivates, and where the
landholder possesses certain social and civil
rights which it is his duty to develop and
protect. Under any other condition of af-
fairs there must and will be difIiulties and
conflicts which it is hard to avoid, and
which make the business of agriculture
trying nd uncertain. l rejoice that around
our New England farms there hang none of
the ignorance and degradation which cow
or in the rural novels of France and l al
so rejoice that on the broad farms of the
West there is found none OF the gloomy and
detected labor which occupies the great
landed estates Of Great Britain. And when,
IN addition to these privileges, shall find