No. 63.1 51 



I will not attempt to enforce by any argument or illustration of 

 mine, the high importance of this trust. If other nations, in the 

 vigor of maturity, with more leisure and more means than we possess, 

 have out-stripped us in the race of philosophical discovery, let it be 

 our boast, that we have spread these discoveries wider ^ and made 

 them at once available by making them part of the current know- 

 ledge of the nation. Let it be our first aim to diffuse knowledge, 

 where the constitution has rightly given power, to the whole people. 



It is not, gentlemen, the sole object of our Society, to reward 

 those who bring to our Fairs the finest animals, or to remunerate those 

 who, with skill and industry, raise the best crops. These are but the 

 means, and part of the means, by which it is hoped to achieve high- 

 er and wider ends. We wish, by association, by comparison of 

 ideas, and by a generous emulati,on, to diffuse among ourselves, and • 

 the mass of the agricultural community, the results of experience, 

 the lights of science, and the productions of art. 



Of the incalculable power, for good and evil, of association and 

 combined effort, the present age abounds in illustrations. That this 

 great element of man's power has often been wielded to trample up- 

 on the equal rights, the peace and happiness of society, cannot be 

 denied. Of the many instances in which, with widely different and 

 higher aims, it has effected the noblest achievements, I shall only refer 

 to one. With what language can we describe, with what powers of 

 calculation estimate, the wide spread good accomplished, the deep 

 misery warded off, by temperance associations'? What individual, 

 wieldino- even a despot's sceptre — what government, monarchial or 

 democratic — what law — what armed force, could have achieved the 

 great results brought about in our day, within our own observation, 

 by these efforts 1 With this signal illustration before us, we cannot 

 lack confidence in any efforts wisely directed to a good end. With 

 motives which cannot be impeached, with objects which can no where 

 be condemned, asking no special privileges, requiring no exclusive im- 

 munities, seeking only to elevate and render more effective that labor 

 from which man is destined never to be exempt, we may surely here, 

 if any where, call to our aid the great power of association and com- 

 bination. With this element of strength we wish to awaken the pub- 

 lic mind to a sense of the importance of our avocation, and to dispel 

 whatever may be left of that ancient prejudice, that the tiller of the 

 soil is the drudge of the human race. 



