Year: 1873

peace IN the absence OF temptations and
tunult; in the domestic joys and home
privileges that it allows and insures /; in
the knowledge and love of Him who pre-
sides benignly over hill and plain, house
and fold, in these the agriculturist finds
a wealth which rust cannot corrupt nor
thieves break through and steal.


The wealth for which I plead, which
every faithfully and intelligently follow
ed industry should yield, is that amount
able to satisfy just and reasonable minds.
To put the agriculture of the country
east and west on such basis that it shall
yield this should be the earnest effort,
as it must be the desire of every patriot
ic citizen.


There are in our midst class of men,
composed of representatives of almost ev-
cry prominent pursuit and profession,
who are directly engaged in this endeav-
or, having been fortunate in acquiring
large means, being filled with a true
love of country life, they have devoted
large sums of money and not little
thought to the improvement of New
England agriculture. To the ignorant
and such as gauge the value of effort by
the financial returns alone, their en-
terprise seems foolish, and an epithet
has been put upon them which served,
indeed only to describe the ignorance of
those who used i'll refer to the phrase
fancy farmers" l am glad of this op-
portunity to publicly express the sense
of my Indebtedness as farmer and a
farmers son, and the indebtedness of
the country at large, to those men who
have spent their money SO freely in be-
half of public interest. Especially in
the introduction of improved breeds of
cattle and sheep, and swine and horses,
and in the popularizing of practical
chemistry do /, and every agricul-
turist, stand indebted TO them. Their
blunders, which some seem to regard as
matters to point their satire, appear to
me to be only the inevitable accident at
tending all new enterprises and interest
methods, while their successes have re.
suited in the benefit Of us all. The brief
est examination of the fruits and flowers,
the cattle and sheep on these grounds,
and especially an inspection of the mag
nifcent horse stock here exhibited, will
reveal to any thoughtful visitor of this
fair how much we all owe to these men
by whose public spiritedness such a
magnificent display has alone been made
possible. The fact is there is not herd
of cattle, or an improved breed of sheep,
or crate of elegant fowls, or family
of noted horses here to-day which does
not owe its introduction and existence to
the enterprise of these men. If the
beautiful customs of the Greeks prevail
ed among US and at every gathering of
tiO pSOPio thosS NhO hau pSASuLeu Tue
State most were to have wreaths of
honor distributed to them, surely these
men could not go hence unkn own and
unrewarded. Not in wreaths and tablets,
or monuments bestowed at death, gentle
men, but in the evidences of prosperity
brought to all in the enlargement and
ennobling of unselfshness born of your
example; in the banishment of poverty
from barn and stable and in the univer-
sal betterment of the peoples condition
you will find your reward.


The interest which these gentlemen
have taken in agriculture is valuable
not only because of the results it has act.
ually wrought, but because it proves
that the love of the soil and of the inno-
cent and healthy mode of life insepara.
bly, connected with its cultivation are
still strong in the hearts of men.


That this is fact, no careful observer
of American tendencies can fail to see
The wild craving for city life and city
customs which has been a distinctive
feature of American society is dying
away. A new and healthier longing il
driving it to the wall. We have begun
to learn and confess that city life kills
good people as well as bad; that it un.
dermines health and shortens life; its
successes as truly as its failures bow men
to the grave; that its days are not peri.
DDS of healthy toll, but of feverish exer.
tion which so infames the blood that il
burns slumber, which is the sweet core
of night, out of it. From these causes
the denizens of our cities are beginning
more and more to look toward the coun


try. There is growing yearning in
their eyes for its sweet fields, and cleal
skies and wide free spaces, where time is
divided into hours and not into appoint


ments, and nights are real nights, dewy
cool, and still night whose throne is 81


lence and at the gentle movement Of
whose sceptre the wakeful earth bushes


her noise and sinks obediently into swee


repose. Such longings, / say, are stir