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cattle upon it, equally as choice as his, in her own right ; and they were 

 both competitors at the annual exhibitions. At her most comfortable 

 and hospitable residence she showed us with pride, the several cups and 

 ■other articles of plate which her family had won as prizes at the Agri- 

 cultural Exhibitions, and which she intended to preserve as heir-looms 

 to her children. From the bottom of our heart, we trust that a reform- 

 ation is at work among our American women, in the promotion of a 

 taste ; and not only a taste, but a genuine love of things connected with 

 country life. It was not so with the mothers and the wives of the stern 

 and earnest men who laid the foundation of their country's freedom and 

 greatness. They were women of soul, character and stamina, who 

 grappled with the realities of life, in their labors, and enjoyed its pleas- 

 ures with truth and honesty. This over-nice, mincing delicacy and sen- 

 timentality in which their grand-daughters indulge, is but the ofF-throw 

 of the boarding school, the novelist and the prude, mere 'leather and 

 prunella.' 



" One lady horticulturist, according to the Norfolk Va. Argus, is alone 

 cultivating thirty acres of land in stawberries, and employs fifty pick- 

 ers, for the northern cities. Eve was the flower of the garden, and 

 without her it would not have been Paradise. She watered and nourished 

 the plants and trained their growth. No un-wifed farmer can show a 

 clean garden. Like himself, it will always be unwed. The domestic 

 example, comfort and endearment which woman gives to home, is the 

 best volume of memoirs for children to read. The noble second which a 

 good wife gives to the farmer's efforts, stimulates the wavering, revives 

 sinking hopes, and softens arduous toil. ' She layeth her hands to the 

 spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. Her children rise up and call her 

 blessed, and her husband he praiseth her.' " 



And now, farmers, let us hold fast to our profession, it is one which 

 admits of progress ; you are the bone and sinew of the land ; you stand 

 upon the soil, and every year augment the wealth of the nation,. Other 

 classes are the consumers, the exchangers. You furnish the means and 

 the supply. Our profession demands the highest order of intellect and 

 virtue. We must not discard science, for she is the hand-maid of agri- 

 culture. Investigation is necessary to our progress. Ascertained facts 

 are the data on which we must frame our theories. Agricultural works 

 assist inquiry, and at our next exhibition let us make the Society worthy 

 of Dane county and of ourselves. 



