MERRIMACK COUNTY. 



Iq this county, there have been no active efforts the past 

 year. For a long time Merrimack county had sustained 

 one of the most efficient societies in the State. It was 

 established by Isaac Bill and others, and..received the con- 

 tributions of earnest and intelligent men during the many 

 years of its existence. In the absence of any proceedings 

 in this county, we present an address delivered before the 

 society many years ago, by Ezekiel Webster, Esq., brother 

 of the late Hon. Daniel "Webster. Mr. Webster was well 

 known in the State, as an eminent lawyer and eloquent 

 public speaker. The address has been kindly furnished us 

 by Prof. E. D. Sanborn, of Dartmouth College, and as it 

 has never been published, it will be read with interest. 

 Its publication may suggest the propriety of reviving the 

 County Society on the banks of the Merrimack. 



Agriculture was the first occupation of man. And it is 

 still the employment of the greatest portion of the human 

 race. It supplies him with his first necessity, food. 

 It furnishes, also, the materials of all the conveniences 

 and comforts which he enjoys. 



The materials produced by agriculture are wrought by 

 mechanical skill and industry, with a thousand varieties of 

 manufactured products, which, circulated by the means and 

 operations of commerce, increase not only the conveniences 

 and the comforts, but also the higher enjoyments of civil- 

 ized and polished life. 



Agricultural labor must be principally performed by the 



