96 BANQUET TO THE 



but bears the marks of his untiring efforts for every 

 horticultural improvement known to us, and of his 

 devotion to the pomological development of our 

 country. 



His devoted labor for the development of Amer- 

 ican agriculture formed of itself one of the most 

 interesting chapters in the history of that important 

 industry. When he began his work of encouraging 

 the farmer in his toil, agriculture was in a primitive 

 condition everywhere, and confined, in this country, 

 to comparatively circumscribed limits. In Massa- 

 chusetts the influence of a few liberal and energetic 

 societies had been sensibly felt, it is true, and the 

 introduction of improved machinery and new and 

 valuable crops had met with hearty encouragement. 

 But neither for Massachusetts nor for that wide- 

 spread agricultural region from which are now drawn 

 the great supplies for our home market and the main 

 support of our foreign commerce, had any adequate 

 system of tillage and harvesting been adopted ; nor 

 had the public mind been roused to a full un- 

 derstanding of the importance of a well-educated, 

 scientific management of land, and a well-conducted 

 increase and care of our flocks and herds. The 

 great inventions of agricultural machinery which 

 make the special farming of the East profitable and 

 the wholesale farming of the West possible, were but 

 just commenced, and had hardly made a step towards 



