188 N. H. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



limited sphere, it grows outward until it embraces the 

 whole commonwealth. Selfishness may at first be its mov- 

 ing principle, but extend the circle, and it partakes of a 

 disinterested character and claims the full honors of pa- 

 triotism. 



The reason is evident and natural. Having a permanent 

 interest in the soil, the farmer is ready at all times to 

 defend it. Ilis neiglibor, equally interested, is willing to 

 engage with the same spirit, and to make a common work, 

 and a mutual defence of their homes, their neighborhood 

 and their country. They watch and oppose those political 

 schemes which threaten danger, and in their unostentatious 

 way encourage those measures which promise good. Con- 

 stantly employed in their rural pursuits, they are firm in 

 their convictions of dutv; adhere to well established cus- 

 toms — perhaps too pertinaciously; and cannot easily be 

 influenced or betrayed by the inflammatory speeches of 

 political demagogues. They are true conservatives. They 

 choose rather to endure abuses, than adopt hasty measures 

 for redress. But still, they are watchful of the encroach- 

 ments of others, and when they are certain of selfish de- 

 signs, and impending danger to them or their common 

 country, they come to the rescue with a determination 

 that cannot be changed, and labor with a persistence un- 

 equalled, until their object is eifectcd. 



This natural and almost universal desire to possess land 

 is an evidence that nature designed a large proportion of 

 every community should be engaged in its cultivation. — 

 The earth was given to man's use that he might subdue it. 

 It was God's command that he should "dress it and keep 

 it." Agriculture, then, was the original, the natural and 

 universal occupation. From the day when the first seed 

 was placed in the earth by the hand of man to the present, 

 when each of us ploughs and reaps his portion of this 

 common iiilicritance, it has been every where the chief 

 pursuit. On it depends the subsistence of all other cm- 



