STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 307 



ADDRESS. 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE NORTHERN DISTRICT FAIR AT ITS EIGHTH ANNUAL 

 SESSION, AUGUST TWENTY-FIFTH, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINE. 



By Rev. WILLIAM McKAIG. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of this Association : Allow me to congratu- 

 late you on being permitted to assemble again in this hall, under such 

 favorable auspices, to celebrate your annual industrial jubilee. Another 

 year has rolled away, and Ceres from her golden horn has poured out a 

 bounteous harvest of flowers, fruit and grain, health and good cheer; 

 and now from the snow-fed springs of the mountain, the blooming vine- 

 yards of the foot-hills, and the broad and fertile valleys, you come 

 together in tents and booths, like the old Hebrews at the Feast of the 

 Tabernacle, after the autumnal vintage, to talk over the historj 7 of the 

 past, the prospects of the future, and display the prospects of your skill 

 and labor. It is too late now to question the utility of these industrial 

 convocations. It is admitted on all hands that agriculture, at least, has 

 greatly improved since the establishment of the custom of holding 

 annual fairs and exhibitions. Before that, the husbandman wanted the 

 improvement that comes from the fellowship of kindred workers, the 

 collision of ideas, the interchange of experience and the zeal excited by 

 publicity and commendation. Scattered widely over the face of the 

 country, immured in quiet rural seclusion, they saw but little beyond 

 their immediate neighborhood. They did not meet in annual conventions 

 for debate and mutual edification, as the ministers and physicians. They 

 were not quickened by professional rivalry and ambition as the lawyers 

 during Court term. The papers did not puff and advertise the wondrous 

 products of the fields and vineyards as they did the wares and commodi- 

 ties of the city merchant. Each farmer lived apart, doing his own work 

 in his own way; marketing his grain, vegetables and eggs; selling his 

 pork and wool in silent isolation; learning nothing from the experience 

 of others, and rarely improving upon the methods of his ancestors. State 

 and county agricultural associations havo helped, perhaps, more than 

 any other agency, to break up this monotony and stagnation. They 

 bring the cultivators of the soil so intimately together, that the skill, 

 talent and experience of one becomes the heritage of all. Hence, pros- 

 perity and increased intelligence have marked the history of every State 

 and community that has fostered these exhibitions. 



You will hardly expect of me, however, an address upon any of the 

 subjects directly appertaining to the object of this association. My 



