G. S. BOUTWELL'S ADDRESS. 369 



man of the charms of Eden. We may fail thus to get some- 

 thing of city graces : wc shall keep the more of country 

 strength. Let us hold fast to the sheet anchor and stay of 

 nations. Let science be applied to augment the productive- 

 ness and value of the agricultural lands of the Commonwealth, 

 as its population increases, and other interests attain great rela- 

 tive weight : to which end, the State should be called on to 

 establish an agricultural school worthy of her wealth and fame. 

 If our soil will not produce, nor the climate ripen, those great 

 staples which supply our foreign trade, cotton, tobacco, sugar, 

 wheat, rice, yet other products of the earth are not wanting 

 here, as the means and the subject of agricultural industry and 

 prosperity. Let it never be forgotten that agriculture is the 

 conservative element in our social system, under whatever 

 name of party that interest may for the time being appear. 

 Finally, if we should ever incline to doubt as to the relation of 

 agriculture to life, to the character of men, and to the destiny 

 of nations, let us look back on the history of our country, and 

 remember how many of its greatest generals, like Washington, 

 Jackson, Taylor, how many of its greatest statesmen, like Jef- 

 ferson, Madison, Calhoun, to say nothing of living men, have 

 been the production and growth of rural life, and have clung, 

 Avith invincible tenacity, amid all the changes and chances of 

 the loftiest flights of greatness, to the pursuits and the interests 

 of their mother-earth. 



The Pleasures and the Profits of Farming, and the Folly 



OF (Quitting it. 



[Extract from an Address by George S. Boutwell, Esq., at the last Fair of 

 the Middlesex Jlgricultwal Society.] 



The cultivation and the cultivators of the land have been 

 eminently blessed by Divine Providence. God has spoken to 

 the husbandman, and said, Seed-time and harvest shall neve?- 



fail. 



But there is no promise to the warrior, the merchant, the 



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