JOSEPH T. BUCKINGHAM'S ADDRESS. 413 



Should any one, who traveled through the interior of New 

 England, forty, or even twenty years ago and observed the 

 aspect of the country, now go over the same route, he would 

 find the words of prophecy literally fulfilled, the desert and 

 the solitary place having become glad and fruitful, and the wil- 

 derness made to blossom as the rose. But the-?^ are still waste 

 places to be subdued, barren fields to be renovated, bog mead- 

 ows to be reclaimed, thorns and thistles to be eradicated, new 

 channels of improvement to be opened, depths of science yet 

 to be explored. Thinking men are led to investigation by 

 every new hint or suggestion, and investigation seldom fails to 

 produce, directly or indirectly, some beneficial effect, in the dis- 

 covery of new facts or the application of principles. Every 

 experiment by a practical farmer adds something to his capital. 

 The examples of such men as John Lowell, John Wells, Peter 

 C. Brooks and Josiah Quiiicy, have produced incalculable bene- 

 fits ; and what may not be expected from the persevering labors 

 and costly experience of John P. Gushing, Daniel Webster, and 

 Levi Lincoln, to say nothing of the silent, calm, and modest, 

 but eminently useful exertions of many, who practise farming 

 on a smaller scale, who pursue " the noiseless tenor of their 

 way," among unfrequented mountains and valleys, but whose 

 labors are not less beneficial to the State, and who are entitled 

 to equal if not greater honor, as benefactors of mankind, and 

 contributors to the general stock of national wealth and intel- 

 ligence. 



The raising of forest trees is a subject of great importance, 

 and its importance is daily increasing. The Legislature, wise- 

 ly, 1 think, has recommended it to the attention of the proprie- 

 tors of the soil, and premiums have been offered for the culti- 

 vation of several varieties, but I am not aware that a premium 

 has ever been claimed. There once prevailed an unaccounta- 

 ble propensity to destroy the forests, even where land was not 

 wanted for tillage. The consequence is a scarcity of wood 

 and timber. In many places, fuel has become one of the most 

 expensive articles of domestic consumption. That individual, 

 or that association, that should exhibit a plantation of the vari- 

 ous kinds of trees, adapted to supply wood for fuel, timber for 



