92 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



The speaker closed with a series of apothegms applicable 

 in practical agriculture. 



In 1833 Edward Everett was the orator. It may be deemed 

 certain that he had no practical knowledge of the art of 

 turning a furrow, and improbable that, at that date, he had 

 ever superintended the laying out of a carrot field, or even 

 the setting of a hedge-row. He therefore did not take the 

 point of view of Col. Pickering, nor, as a farmer speaking 

 to brother farmers, adopt the admonitory tone of Mr. 

 Quincy. He began thus : 



It is generally admitted that since the establishment of 

 cattle shows in this country, the condition of our agricul- 

 ture has manifestly improved. Before that time, our hus- 

 bandmen seemed to want those means of improvement and 

 encouragement to action, which are enjoyed by their fellow 

 citizens engaged in several other pursuits. Instead of liv- 

 ing together in large towns, they are scattered over the sur- 

 face of the country. Instead of having two-thirds of every 

 newspaper filled with advertisements or information relative 

 to their occupation, as is the case with merchants, the most 

 they could promise themselves was that the weight of an 

 enormous vegetable should be faithfully recorded, and the 

 memory of some calf with two heads or six legs should be 

 handed to posterity. They held no conventions and assem- 

 blies, like the clergy and physicians ; were not brought to- 

 gether, like the lawyers, at the periodical terms of court to 

 take counsel with each other, and seemed not to possess, in 

 any way, the means of a rapid comparison and interchange 

 of opinion and feeling. Since the establishment of the cat- 

 tle shows of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agri- 

 culture, and those of the several county societies, this state 

 of things has been greatly amended, and to a very consid- 

 erable degree through the agency of these institutions. 



The cultivators of the soil are now brought together. 

 Their agricultural improvements, their superior animals, 

 their implements of husbandry, the products of their farms, 

 their methods of cultivation, are all subjects of inquiry, 

 comparison and excitement. The premiums proposed have 

 given a spring to the enterprise of the cultivators, not on 

 account of the trifling pecuniary reward which is held out, 

 but through the influence of a generous spirit of emulation. 



