477 



comprehension — their bodies athletic, the generation long before them 

 having had all their weaknesses and impurities, consequent on intem- 

 perance, entirely eradicated. Then the credit system will only be 

 known on the historic page, as the folly of the age two hundred years 

 ago, or, as loe now look upon the acts of the Pilgrims in believing in 

 hanging for witchcraft. The soil, now robbed of all her productive- 

 ness, through the short-sightedness and laziness of man, will then be 

 deep ploughed, turning under a heavy luxuriance, that it may produce 

 abundantly again. The curious inquisitive genius will read over the 

 proceedings of this anniversaiy, the premiums awarded, the noted 

 size of vegetables, remarks on the mechanical arts, the tasty work of the 

 ladies, and say surely, that was in the dark ages, before the introduc- 

 tion of improvements. Ah ! he may turn over another leaf, or chance 

 to find amid the rubbish of some old library, a folio of newspapers, da- 

 ted Grand Rapids, Kent County, Michigan, 1853. There, his eye may 

 catch upon something that will tell that the foundation of all their 

 greatness, may be traced back two hundred years to the little begin- 

 nings of the Kent County Agricultural and Horticultural Society. 



With these suggestions, as we scatter from these consecrated grounds, 

 to our farms and our shops, may we go with a fixed resolution, that 

 this year shall be distinguished far above any preceding, for all the im- 

 provements connected with the greatest prosperity of the Society — 

 may our lives and healths be continued, and our works when we 

 shall assemble on these grounds to exhibit another year, prove that we 

 have answered the highest expectations. But stop ! this cannot be ; that 

 all will be here even in the short span of one year. The Hon. Henry 

 R. Williams,* one of our number, whose deep foot-steps may be traced 

 in almost every enterprise and improvement in our County, and all this 

 Valley, is gone ! Is it weakness, to pause and drop a tear, in imagina- 

 tion over yon distant grave, of one whose memory we cherish with re- 

 spect, and trust that when we are, in various ways, reaping the fruits of 

 his enterprise, we shall be prepared to follow in quick succession, to 

 make room for the teeming myriads that are pressing on to fill our plar 

 ces. 



»Mr. Williams died in Buffalo, N. Y. 



