If a practical inference may be drawn from the thoughts thus de- 

 sultorily thrown together, it would be that, from a history of the past, 

 and the condition of our agriculture as it now exists, we demand that 

 our profession shall be placed within the reach of equal advantages 

 for improvement that are now enjoyed by other professions. Under 

 a condition of things constituted like those which we have discussed, 

 you, gentlemen of the Society, have labored during the last seven- 

 teen years, through anxiety and toil, directed by honest purpose and 

 intelligent action, until you have arrived at a successful issue. It 

 has been a labor if not of discovering the precious metal in the 

 earth at least that of removing the inert mass from the surface, to 

 the quarrying of the mine, and the upraising of the valuable ore to 

 the admiration of the community, to be wrought by skillful artizans 

 into handiwork of infinite utility and ornament. Aside from meta- 

 phor ; a mass of long slumbering prejudice and inertia has been re- 

 moved ; the spirit of improvement has been awakened ; our agricul- 

 tural resources have been partially developed; our exertions have 

 won an acknowledgement of the importance and dignity of our call- 

 ing, which none can gainsay ; and it is thus that your Society, through 

 its labors and results, now stands an object of respect and admira- 

 tion to our countrymen. A great good has therefore been effected, 

 and in contemplating the position which your Society now occupies, 

 I do it in no exulting spirit of laudation, or of triumph, but as admon- 

 ishing you, that having accomplished so much, you have the highest 

 incentive to still further, if not weightier labors and achievements. 

 Not content with creating an institution which holds an established 

 rank among kindred institutions abroad, and maintaining honorable 

 and kindly intercourse with them ; nor that you annually draw out 

 the farmers, mechanics and citizens of this and of neighboring States 



