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are kept even with the times respecting transpiring events ; and he will have 

 in addition, one or more papers devoted to agriculture and horticulture, to 

 enable him U> be profited by the knowledge of others, and to direct all his 

 energies and resources to the best known advantage. It was said by some 

 wise man, that he who has caused two blades of grass to grow where but one 

 could grow before, has done more good, and is a greater public benefactor, 

 than the conqueror of armies. 



One hundred per cent, advance in the productions of the earth, would sus- 

 tain double the population, or in eftuct it would double the number of acres 

 of land. On the poor soils of the country a greater improvement than this 

 may be obtained. Why then is it not done ? For the lack of knowledge 

 and enterprise, experiments are sometimes disastrous, tending to individual 

 losses : and one man, unaided by the experiments of others, might spend a 

 long life and die in poverty, leaving posterity to i-eap the advantages of his 

 few beneficial discoveries. But where hundreds and thousands are searching 

 for valuable truths, and congregating together occasionally to enrich each 

 other's minds with the results of all they have achieved and the means adopt- 

 ed to produce those results, there will be a rapid improvement in all, both in 

 knowledge and wealth ; all will be benefitted by the discoveries of each, and 

 no individual be made less wise or less wealthy by his contributions to the 

 general stock. A congregation of knowledge for the purpose of imparting it, 

 so different from the distributions of money, that he who gives is a gainer ; 

 all possess the knowledge of each, all receive in the act of bestowing, all 

 grow rich, and no one is impoverished by his contributions. 



Agricultural associations excite emulation, and bring into active employ- 

 ment the minds of nearly all its members, and when many minds arc at the 

 same time searching for truths connected with any subject susceptible of im- 

 provement, the velocity with which discoveries will be made, will increase 

 with the numbers employed in the researcli. Time will not now admit of 

 reciting all the advantages and pleasures attendant upon agricultural meetings, 

 and were there time, I would feel myself unequal to the task ; I will mention 

 a few and close. 



The exhibitions of the plowing match, the rivalrj- in the prowess with the 

 scythe, the sickle, and the cradle, will interest the athletic youths who toil in 

 the strife ; the aged can look on deliglited with the scene, thankful that the 

 times and the manners have so changed, that the youth may be amused in 

 exercises tending only to advantage, that the fashions of savage ferocity ac- 

 companied with drinking and fighting, have given place to the gentle strifes 

 of peace. Here too, will be exhibited a panorama of the best specimens of all 

 the elegant, curious and useful animals in the district. Here the lovely 

 maidens will present their boquets of flowers, specimens of their own handi- 

 craft in spinning, weaving and coloring, samples of butter and cheese, better 

 and finer than eastern nabob ever feasted on. And last, though not least, 

 those who reared and culled the flowers, who made the butter, wlio pressed 

 the cheese, who spun the yarn, who colored the web, who wove the variegated 

 pieces, who bleached the diaper, wiil be there in their own proper persons. 



