FARMING REMINISCENCES. 9 



and of the House, are nominal bodies, which rarely meet and 

 never report any bills. We hear nothing in Congress about 

 plough shares, though could the furrows throughout the Union 

 be deepened one inch next spring, it would add one million of 

 dollars to our national wealth next fall. Yet every one, both 

 in and out of Congress, is posted up on the price of shares in 

 the railroads which are " facilitating the intercourse between 

 various portions of our country," and which are not more remu- 

 nerative than is a potato crop when the rot is prevalent. 



Agricultural societies were first formed in New England 

 about the commencement of the present century, and among 

 those who took an active part in improving husbandry, were 

 the clergy, whose parsonage farms were often models to the 

 country round. No work, probably, has been of such practical 

 utility to the farmers of New England, as the " Georgical Dic- 

 tionary," published by the Rev. Dr. Dcane. 



During the meteor-like career of Napoleon the Great, the 

 disturbed state of European politics raised the price of produce 

 abroad, and gave our home agriculture a decided impulse from 

 the embargo, which forced men back to mother earth for sup- 

 port. But it was not permanent. When the silver-toned 

 trumpet of peace was sounded, prices fell ; the almost total 

 failure of the corn crop in 1816, had a discouraging effect, and 

 the slow progress of agricultural industry caused it to be looked 

 upon as a subordinate employment. Boys were made to toil 

 with worn-out tools until they generally escaped to sea or to 

 the city, while the professions were looked upon as the only 

 stepping-stones to honor or to high social position. It is a 

 curious fact, however, that the most eminent of those who 

 deserted the old homestead to enter upon " the golden chase of 

 life," ever yearned for the bosom of mother earth, and finally 

 returned to it. To me, the most interesting chapters of their 

 biographies are those which chronicle their agricultural labors. 

 Jackson at the Hermitage, Calhoun at his mountain farm, 

 Henry Clay at Ashland, and Webster at Marshfield, each paid 

 a practical homage to agriculture, and consecrated those spots 

 as heart-shrines to be remembered with Mount Vernon and La 

 Grange. Majestic as was the form of the " Expounder of the 

 Constitution " when he upheld the honor of Massachusetts upon 

 the floor of the United States senate chamber, how much more 

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