ADDRESS 



Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Essex Agticultural 

 Society : — 



It would seem that the half-century of this Society's existence 

 should have given it greater wisdom in the choice of a speaker 

 for to-day. There is probably no one in this assembly less fa- 

 miliar with practical agriculture than myself. My one experi- 

 ment in this department was with beans. The poles attained 

 their full height in a single day ; the beans I never saw again 

 till I dug for them ; when they were discovered, alike untouched 

 by germination or decay. Many of them must still remain in 

 the same ground, to reward some future explorer with unchange- 

 able proof of my veracity. But the experience yielded a crop 

 of wisdom, in my determination to adhere to my own occupation 

 and leave beans to those who knew them better than I. 



Nor would even the compliment of your invitation have led 

 me to yield so sensible and fixed a purpose, had I not remem- 

 bered that compliance with your wishes might help me to the 

 partial quittance of a debt long since incurred to the agricultu- 

 ral world. In my boyhood, holidays were few. It is easy to re- 

 call the scenery lit by their passing gleams of liberty so long 



