PROF. SHEPARD ON AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS. 



91 



and venerable occupation, it has, is some 

 sort, taken on a new youth ; and this youth 

 seems inspired with insatiable desires and 

 the most exulting hope. Be encouraged 

 then with the old German proverb, that 

 what we strive after in youth, we shall at- 

 tain to fullness in old age ; and concerning 

 which, Goethe, the poet and the naturalist, 

 has given this fine commentary, " that our 

 wishes are presentiments of the faculties 

 which lie v/ithin us, and harbingers of that, 

 which we shall be in a condition to per- 

 form." Thus, I easily persuade myself, it 

 will prove in your case, in the distinguish- 

 ed zeal you are exhibiting for the improve- 

 ment of your profession. 



When your example shall be adopted, 

 throughout the counties of New-England, 

 a new order of thrift and intelligence will 

 be discerned among the rural population. 

 The more certain success, which will then 

 wait upon the husbandman, shall super- 

 cede the farther necessity for his emigra- 

 tion towards the setting sun ; and the high- 

 er intelligence and refinement, which shall 

 then prevail, will cease to urge with such 

 undesirable force, such troops of our most 

 promising country j'outh, to seek their for- 

 tunes in city life ; where alas, the tempta- 

 tions to vice and the rush of competition, 

 so often frustrate all their hopes. Then 

 will it be seen, that the most infertile of our 

 districts, will be competent to sustain in 

 comfort and wealth even, a vastly augment- 

 ed population. Then will it most clearly 

 appear, that there exists no real incompati- 

 bility, between the labors of the field and 

 a cerfain degree of mental culture and sim- 

 ple refinement ; but on the contrary, that 

 the uncontaminated air of heaven, which 

 the farmer breathes, the beautiful forms 

 with which nature everywhere surrounds 

 him, in her productions, and the constant 

 witness, which he is, in his labors, of the 

 beneficial operation of great natural laws, 

 powerfully conspire to the formation of a 

 pure and noble character ; and may well 

 justify the expectation, that the country will 

 •continue to accomplish more fully in time 

 to come, than she has done even in the 

 past, her destiny, of supplying to science 

 and literature her most successful profi- 

 eieuts, to the learned professions their most 



distinguished ornaments, and to our great 

 towns their most valued citizens ; while 

 she is still able to retain enough of solid 

 worth and attractions at home, to enable 

 her to make reprisals on the city, by reco- 

 vering to her own blissful retirement, many 

 a man, who in youth, with sound constitu- 

 tion and upright purpose, entered the great 

 mart of trade, but who amid all his success- 

 es kept alive enough of nature in his soul, 

 to bring him back again to her peaceful 

 retreats, in the evening of his days. 



To the spirit of agricultural improvement, 

 we look also, with hope, that it will extin- 

 guish all lingering remains of military am- 

 bition ; and that under its benign and hu- 

 manizing sway, we shall become more 

 emulous of re-conquering the wastes within 

 our borders, than of adding new wilder- 

 nesses to our already too extended domain. 

 What room is there for brilliant achieve- 

 ment even in New-England, in expelling 

 those unsightly enemies of the husband- 

 man, that have been permitted to overrun 

 so large a portion of our fair inheritance. 

 Turn your eyes, ye martial spirits of Mas- 

 sachusetts, tu that army of golden rods, 

 waving their yellow plumes upon a thou- 

 sand hills; see yonder dauntless array of 

 life-everlastings, that crowd the wide cham- 

 paigns ; see our highways, and the contigu- 

 ous fields, beset by insolent hordes of mul- 

 len and thistles, and fair meadows, where 

 once flourished the golden grain, now cover- 

 ed with base daisies and sorrel. What 

 fields of glory await you, at your very doors. 

 To dispossess these daring invaders, shall 

 yield you a hundred fold more of true glory, 

 than to follow the stripes and stars from 

 Labrador to Cape Horn ! In the coming 

 age of improvement, who shall say, that 

 to subdue and eradicate one of these pests 

 to the farmer, will not bring as bright a 

 chaplet of fame, as it now can do, to tram- 

 ple down a human foe ? Who shall say, 

 that he who shall prove himself foremost 

 in peaceful labors like these that exalt 

 human happiness, may not reap the high- 

 est gift of a grateful country, as surely 

 as he who holds himself ready to barter 

 his conscience in the shambles of party, 

 or risk his life in the barbarous perils of 

 war ? 



