AGRICULTURAL HEAD-WORK. 19 



brance upon the land, in a mortgage to poverty, signed in its name, 

 with so many years' unpaid interest ah-cady accumulated. 

 What then can happen in such a case, but that the mortgagee 

 must secure a foreclosure, and enter into possession with a 

 clear title. Over-cropping, unskilful manuring and hard labor, 

 •may, for a while, make " two blades of grass grow where one 

 grew before." Agricultural head-work has a duty to perform 

 in protectuig the soil from all forms of vandalism, by which its 

 nutrient properties are in any way or degree reduced. 



And much more may be said concerning the quality of these 

 products. Bulk, certainly, is no criterion of the value of 

 the crops. The support of life will come from the wlieat, 

 not from the chaff. This agricultural society, and all similar 

 organizations, are based, professedly, upon the purpose of 

 improving these products. And no man is fully true to the 

 spirit of such an association, who will admit that any product 

 is quite good enough. 



There can be no better way to test the possibilities of the 

 future, than by the results of the past. Your tables arc now 

 graced by the presence of great names, which will find, as 

 most of the self-elated great ones of eartli may do, very little 

 to boast of at the beginning of their pedigree. The Duchess 

 of Angouleme, Charles of Aiistria, Frederick of Wirtcmberg, 

 Marie Louise, Napoleon, are certainly among the pear nobility. 

 But they are all liable to the terrible reproach of being /^ar- 

 venu; they must acknowledge a common descent from a fruit, 

 upon which, our Choke Pear is a decided improvement. 

 Pliny, in the first century of our era, — and this is quite late 

 in the genealogy of the family, — speaks of the great number 

 of varieties, but adds, " all pears whatsoever are but a heavy 

 meat, unless they be well boiled or baked." The apple 

 does not aspire to such high sounding titles ; but no one would 

 guess from its present quality, — as judged by the Baldwin, 

 Rhode Island Greening, Hubbardston Nonesuch, Newtown 

 Pippin, or Nortliern Spy, — that the original was a wild crab of 

 Asia, similar in all respects to the wild crab of Europe and 

 America. Beside these instances of improvement, it may be 

 observed that the reputed, and now generally admitted ances- 

 tor of the luscious Early Crawford, and Coolidge's Favorite, 



