^ 370 [ASSEMBI>T 



ters to scliools at a distanccj where they have learned the arts and 

 fashions of city ladies and gentlemen ; rendering them discon- 

 tented with the duties of their station, instead of bestowing upon 

 them an education that will make that station honorable for its 

 intelligence and beautiful for taste, shown by the cultivators of 

 the soil. 



" And to you, farmers of Chemung county, these remarks are 

 especially applicable. The earliest settlers are the best capable 

 of appreciating the fact, that now the means of wealth and im- 

 provement are vastly increased. That wonderful road which 

 passes through our county is as if a great river had suddenly 

 broken through the forests, bearing on it the ships which convey 

 your produce to the best market in the world. Your lands so 

 lately new, are now equal in value to the oldest and best on the 

 Hudson, or the sea-board -, and shall you not take advantage of 

 your improved condition to improve yourselves, to advance the 

 next generation, so that they who coniB after you may know your 

 name, by continuing on the same lands, and in the pursuit of the 

 same profession, greatly advanced from what it was when you 

 entered into these woods and wilds. Let it be the aim of us all 

 wherever Providence has put us, to fill our place as men, and as 

 women, and as citizens ; and this we cannot do unless we try to 

 leave the little world where we live, better than when we entered 

 on it. 



" That selfish spirit that sees nothing beyond the present day nor 

 above the dollar, as a return, is unworthy of us all as rational be- 

 ings, or as the citizens of this free land. We are indebted to 

 those who preceded us here, in preparing a place for us — we are 

 bound to pay that debt in bequeathing superior advantages to our 

 successors ; and in what way can we do this more eff'ectually than 

 in improving the soil. 



^' But live on in your disregard of all but the immediate return 

 of cash in hand, and you will find yourselves, not unlike that 

 man who resolves to take all he can from his land, and in as 

 short a time as possible, without any outlay. He gets his desire 

 the first year and he feels overjoyed ; but the next season is less? 

 .and it becomes less and less until his farm is impoverished, and 



