MANAGEMENT OF FARMS. 25 



limb b} r false economy, to ask your liberal provision for the 

 development of the useful qualities, and your best servant, — 

 the horse. You have judiciously provided liberal premiums 

 for excellence in the production of the great essentials of agri- 

 culture and for the manly accomplishments connected there- 

 with. This stimulus to the taste and industry of our wives 

 and daughters has produced this large and various collection 

 of beautiful and useful articles which adorn the halls of your 

 exhibition. But I fear you have not sufficiently considered 

 the value the of noble animal, to which so large a portion of our 

 comfort and convenience is due ; not to mention his coopera- 

 tive labor, which, in every relation of the former's life, is indis- 

 pensable to us. The good and useful qualities of the horse 

 are certainly entitled to the advantages of protection, and if 

 subsidies are ever proper, surely the cultivation of the horse 

 must not be niggardly employed by an agricultural commu- 

 nity. The horse is not only one of the valuable productions 

 of agriculture, and, as such, should be encouraged as a source 

 of profit to our community, by fostering the business of breed- 

 ing of blooded-stock, but furnishes also an innocent and 

 manly source of recreation and amusement in the trial of 

 speed, which adds a valuable and profitable attraction to our 

 exhibitions. 



\t is not sound reasoning to object to trotting as a main 

 feature of your cattle-shows, because that practice, in other 

 quarters, has fallen into unworthy hands and degenerated 

 into evil practices. Every occupation, perhaps every source 

 of pleasure, in this life, and, indeed, moral duties themselves, 

 by exaggeration, are often carried to excess, and degenerate ; 

 but the restraining influence of religion and morality, and the 

 general cultivation and refinement which follow such influence 

 in New England, are the only guards against excess in the 

 enjoyment of lawful pleasures and appetites with which nature 

 has endowed us. Our great master, Christ, turned water into 

 wine — a miracle — to promote the enjoyment of his disciples at 

 the marriage-feast of Cana ; but the restraining influence of 

 his holy presence and example prevented intoxication. He 

 cast out of the Temple those that sold doves, and overthrew 

 the tables of the money-changers, not because they sold doves 

 or dealt in money, but because they practised these avoca- 



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