A.r>DE,ESS 



Mr. President^ and Crentlemen of the Essex County Agricultural 

 Society : 



It is pleasant for me to meet you here to-day not only for 

 the interest which, as a citizen, I must feel in that most 

 important branch of industry you represent, but on account 

 also of many personal associations and memories connecting 

 me with the pursuit yon follow. My home in boyhood, and for 

 years after that period had passed, was upon a farm. I have 

 had practical acquaintance with the planning and labors, and 

 have entered into all the habits and tastes that belong with a 

 farmer's life. Our early impressions do not readily leave us ; 

 and there has been with me no wish that they should be 

 removed. Being thus the son of a farmer, and having been a 

 farmer, it is easy for me still to reckon myself as of the same 

 calling with you. This habit is so strong as to put me into a 

 kind of doubt sometimes for the forms of speech that should 

 be used, since I might as naturally say " we farmers " as 

 "you." 



But this claim which I make to be in a manner one of your- 

 selves, I fear I should poorly justify if I were to attempt to 

 speak at length to-day upon the particular methods of the art 

 in which you are engaged. There are few men that ever 

 attain to fullness and thoroughness of knowledge in more than 

 one of the several fields of occupation and study that are 

 opened to us. Having, therefore, my own main employment 



