PLOUGHING. 225 



is she the mother of the arts, but to her votaries must we look 

 for the actual necessaries of life, as well as for the stability and 

 prosperity of our government. We pity any, who, with silly 

 self conceit look with derision upon the sturdy ploughman, with 

 his huge, honest hand and weather-beaten brow. Let such but 

 follow the [jlough beneath a scorching sun, and breatlie the pure 

 air of heaven, and the delicate form and sickly hue will give 

 way to the sinewy arm, and to a countenance glowing with 

 health. Tlius shall the plough become the benefactor of man- 

 kind ; the spear shall be beaten into pruning-hooks, and the 

 sword into ploughshares ; nation shall not lift up sword against 

 nation, neitlier shall they learn war any more. Be it ours to 

 award to the husbandman the dignity and honor which are so 

 justly his due. 



" In ancient times, the sacred plough employed 

 The kinss and awful fathers of mankind : 

 And some, with whom compared your insect tribes 

 Are but the beings of a summer day. 

 Have held the scales of empire, ruled the storm 

 Of mighty war: then, with unwearied hand. 

 Disdaining little delicacies, seized 

 The plough and greatly independent lived." 



Charles H. Field, Chairman. 



FRANKLIN. 



From the Pteport of the Committee. 



The Committee on the Ploughing Match having attended to 

 tlie duty assigned them, make the following report : — 



Were we to have but one criterion by which to judge of the 

 comparative advancement of empires and races in refinement 

 and the useful arts, could we select any thing more reliable than 

 tlie state of their agriculture, with the implements for the per- 

 formance of its labor, and the estimation in which the perform- 

 ers of said labor were held ? And among those implements, the 

 plouih must of necessity take the pre-eminence. 



The Romans, in their palmiest days, and before their subju- 

 gation by the Northmen, called a ploughman from the plough 

 29 



