530 Dedication of Pohjteclinic IlaU — Address. [November, 



By these reunions, tlie feeble have been strengthened and encour- 

 aged, the ignorant have been enlightened ; and those who would 

 look upon our husbandmen as their drudges and serfs, and regard 

 their pursuit as menial, have gone from these scenes appreciating 

 more highly their calling, and have seen in it the elements of our 

 nation's wealth, our nation's prosperity, our nation's glory. 



It requires no great grasp of the intellect to perceive when har- 

 vests are abundant, health, contentment and happiness follow in 

 consequence. If these be scant, or from any cause are cut off, fam- 

 ine and pestilence, misery and death throw around us their sable 

 pall; the hand of the artificer is paralyzed,, the din of the work- 

 shop is still, the sails of commerce are furled, the business of a 

 nation is deranged, and its citizens are bankrupt. Warehouses, 

 ports of entry, canals, railroads, the entire machinery of a nation's 

 commerce avail us nothing, unless it be to transport the pale survi- 

 vors — reckless of the tics which bind man to his birthplace, regard- 

 less of storms, and of shipvrreck — to a land of plenty and of bread. 



The earth itself is not more the foundation on which we stand, 

 than the cultivation of the soil is the foundation of all national exist- 

 ence, of all political stability, all social and mental progress. The 

 ao-riculturist feeds, clothes and shelters the world ; and it is a work 

 of supererogation in this day, to accumulate evidence to show the 

 magnitude and value of this pursuit; argument can not enhance its 

 claims, or eloquence, in its most select phrase, add to its adornment. 

 Let it be ours then, on the present occasion, to honor this noble 

 pursuit, and as far as possible place its higher attainments on an 

 equality with those of the professions, and learn the only way by 

 which it can be permanently and truly ele\'ated, as it must and will 

 be when the prophecy quoted shall have its fulfillment, and men 

 seek through it that position — station, which they now do on the 

 hard fought field, where the glory of the vanquished enemy is the 

 prize sought by the general, and the number slain the measure of 

 his prowess. 



We assert, then, that no prestige of antiquity can throw around 

 this calling its own proper dignity, and give to it distinction or 

 eminence. It has this in classic story. We read of a Cicero prose- 

 cuting his agricultural labors at his own Tusculan Villa — of a Cato, 

 at his fiirm, and of a Cincinnatus at his plow; while the great natu- 

 ralist, Pliny, in his beautiful letters, prides himself on his vineyards. 

 It has been the theme of the poet, the philosopher and the sage. 



