MASS. HORTICULTURAL FESTIVAL. 



233 



k way be some feelitij; akin to the pride tiiat a 

 youn<f mother feels, when with emotions various 

 and all unspeakable, she looks at her tirst-born! 

 But sir after reiirardini^ it for eometinie with hope 

 not unmin;rled with doubt and anxiety, in reeollee- 

 tion of the ominous nroj^no'^tics of my friends, said 

 I to myself — •' well! ujwn the world you shall be 

 cast, and however it may be dijtpowed to receive 

 and treat you, you shall not perish for want of 

 sustenance until you have drawn me dry at least" 

 While a single shot remains in the locker we will 

 keep up the tire in defence of the right and the 

 honor of the plough. True it is, there were but 

 few shots there, as to pecuniary means, bat what 

 sensible warrior ever proclaimed to the enemy the 

 low state of his ammunition? But lo ! sir, just as 

 I was going to fling my poor inexperienced bant- 

 ling abroad to seek its fortune, to my horror it was 

 found to bear date the first of April. .'Ill fools 

 day! In utter* dismay, 1 called to the Devil, (it 

 was only a Printer's devil, Ladies) '" Here^— take 

 it back to your Boss, atid tell him he must alter 

 the date, make it the second — make it any day of 

 the month but lUe fir 4 daxj of ^ prill 



" My friends to whom I mean to send it on a 

 venture, will cast it from them, without examina- 

 tion, salutation or mercy, in the belief that Skin- 

 ner means to make an April fool of us." Well sir, 

 it quickly came back to me on the same day, with 

 a forced date, for now it bore date as you will see 

 the ^d of April 1819 — but here again sir, was an- 

 other perplexity not much less emburrassing than 

 the first — for the second of April— /iorrt6/e dictu 

 —happened to be on Friday ! yes sir, Hang- 

 man's day! What is to be done now, said I! for 

 sir, you may with argument, oppose error and 

 overcome prejudice; and with ridicule you may 

 laugh folly out of countenance; but who can hope 

 for victory, in a contest with superstition! Why 

 sir, I have known good housewives in the country, 

 and let me tell you that your country housewives 

 are none of the worst— I speak from eorne person- 

 al observation in respect of Maryland, Virginia, 

 the Carolina? and so along the seaboard to and 

 along the banks of the Mississippi ; yes, sir, I 

 have known housewives, otherwise most saga- 

 cious and sensible persons, u.terly reluse to put 

 their cloth in the loom, or their quilt in the frame, 

 on a Friday; though everything should be ready 

 and waiting to go ahead; and as for putting their 

 poultry on the goodly and important work of incu- 

 bation on hangman's day; why Mr. President it 

 would be accounted nothing short of" flat burgla- 

 ry" to think of such a thing ! Well sir, after much 

 and anxious cogitation — with the [)ressman stand- 

 ing ready and the printer impatient— I told them 

 to let the crittur go with my poor blessing on its 

 head, in the persuasion that with a careless and 

 cruel world it might escape the over anxious scru- 

 tiny of the author of its being, and so fortunately 

 it did— for ladies I can assure you, for your " aid 

 and comfort," should any similar event happen 

 nearer home, the dear little thing grew apace and 

 prospered amazingly, though it did perchance first 

 see the liglit of this wicked world on hangman's 

 day! Ah but, ladies and gentlemen, the Editor 

 then enjoyed the benefit of the correspondence and 



good will of such men as JEt'FERSoN and Madi- 

 son and Monroe— the Minors and the GitMOHS 

 and Garnet of Virginia— of the PinkneY3 and lhe_ 

 PoiNNETts and Singleton and Herbermont of 

 the Carolinas, and Pickering and Pomeroy and 

 Parsons and Dkrby and the Brooks and the 

 elder Quincy and Jaqti s, aye, and even the kind 

 words and kind Wishes, as your agricultural annals 

 will show, of a LowEi-t. — clarum venerabile noinen! 

 So much for the parentage and birth of the ' first 

 Agricultural Jou-nal published in the United 

 States." of which and its unworthy founder such 

 liigh and undeserved notice has been taken by one 

 WHO liim.-elf leads in the Held of a kindred and an 

 older pursuit, animating by his example and in- 

 spiring confidence, like Tayloh, in the field of 

 Buena Vista. 



[After some further remarks on Agricultural 

 literature, Mr. S. continued as follows:] 



Well) Mr. President, having thus sketched to 

 their foundations, the works to which you have re- 

 ferred, by an infliction of unenterlaining remarks, 

 for which you mav in some measure blame your 

 own kindly disposition, I dare say you are impa- 

 tient to have me conclude with the expression of 

 some sentiment, or commentary, indicative of the 

 feelings produced by all that we have seen, and 

 all that we now see, exquisite and admirable in 

 the way of rich and choice fruits and flowers — ripo 

 and half ripe, in full bloom and half blown. And 

 truly, ladies and seiitlemen. the ditficulty is not to 

 find, but to select and present a single one. out of 

 tht' crowd of lively imjiressions that must fill the 

 mind and the heart of every beholder, and espe- 

 cially of thf* strangers who have come for the first 

 time witliin the gates of Athens. Would you 

 have us Sfieak, Mr. President, of the vast and mag- 

 nificent display of Horticultural skill and industry 

 which but yesterday ornamented all these tables 

 before us, with attractions hardly less graceful and 

 splendid than that which surrounds them now — a 

 display to which you, sir, may forever look back 

 with the proud reflection — Magna pars quorum 

 fui. Sir, 1 congratulate you on the brilliant finale 

 to your presidential labors; your successor will 

 have no easy task, as others have found before 

 him, to tread in the foot-prints of his '' illustrious 

 predecessor." I recommend him to go to Lynn for 

 a pair of seven league boots. Why, sir, to tell 

 the whole truth about your exhibition yesterday, it 

 was my purpose to have attempted a sketch of it. 

 Yes, sir, 1 had proposed to make a rough sketch 

 —a sort of outline of what I should see; but sir, 

 when I did enter this room, with all these long 

 tables groaning— -no not groaning, but exulting-— 

 under their load of choice and magnificent fruits 

 and flowers, all thoughts (f description was at 

 once abandoned. Wliy, a descriptive catalogue of 

 the apples atune, contributed by my friend here, 

 Mr. French, would make a paper as long as the 

 long table they almost covered from end to end. 

 1 was at once struck up. I felt for all the world 

 as that fair Queen must have done when she said 

 unto the gallant king Solomon — I had heard much, 

 and my expectations were wrought to the highest 

 pitch, but since I have come to see what you have 



