400 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



State, an air of neatness, comfort, utility, taste, and beauty, 

 which strikingly distinguishes them from those of their imme- 

 ate predecessors. Whenever new buildings are erected, this 

 change displays itself, and often in anticipating the natural de- 

 cay of the inherited old ones. I assert that this improvement 

 has already manifested itself sufficiently to change, in this re- 

 spect, the general appearance of the State. And for the truth of 

 this assertion, I appeal to any man who can survey a given por- 

 tion of its surface, with the recollections of fifty years thick 

 upon him. 



Nor is the improvement limited to private dwellings. It has 

 shown itself equally in churches, town halls, and best of all, 

 in schoolhouses. Neither is it restricted to the shelters, pub- 

 lic or private, of man. It has extended to the covering of the 

 brute. The ham of to-day, both in its appearance, its econo- 

 my, and its convenience, is quite another affair from that of 

 years ago. It assumes that cattle have breaths to stifle, 

 limbs to shiver, and nerves to feel, as well as man. It assumes 

 too, that what the laws of gravity and mechanics can as well 

 do as the farmer's hands, they can do with infinitely less 

 fatigue. 



I must turn, however, from improvements in building to 

 those in husbandry. I do so with the remark, that the former 

 have been of that practical character which do not improve 

 the farmer out of his livelihood. Modern building costs prob- 

 ably not more in its construction, and much less in its main- 

 tenance, than that which preceded it. It is better, and on the 

 whole, more economical. This must be the characteristic of all 

 substantial improvement. It is useless to show the farmer a 

 more convenient house, if its construction will absorb his farm, 

 or to point out modes of reclaiming land, that will cost double 

 its value. 



In husbandry, the last fifty years have witnessed most impor- 

 tant progress, everywhere evinced in the higher state of our 

 agriculture. Hallam remarks, that " there are but two possible 

 modes, in which the produce of the earth can be increased ; 

 one by rendering fresh land serviceable ; the other by improv- 

 ing the fertility of that which is already cultivated." In both 



