4 MR. PAYSON S ADDRESS. 



ty, with the blessing of Heaven, caO, out of New England, no- 

 where find its parallel, much more occasion for pride would she 

 have were all her farmers in the same degree guilty as was Cresicus 

 the Roman ; for of all the employments in which men engage, none 

 is more profitable to the community, more dignified or honorable in 

 itself, or so well calculated to insure health and happiness to the 

 individual, as that primitive and divine occupation — the culture of 

 the earth. "Replenish the earth and subdue it," was the first 

 command of the Almighty to man, and doubly grateful is the culti* 

 vated earth for the labor which man bestows upon her. She repays 

 him ten-fold for his toil, and at the same time rewards him with 

 strength, health and vigor. It has been said that "few politicians are 

 half so useful members of a Commonwealth as an honest farmer, who 

 by skillfully draining, fencing, manuring and planting, has increased 

 the intrinsic value of a piece of land, and thereby done a perpetual 

 service to his country." 



But the importance of Agriculture, sometimes over-rated by prej* 

 udiced tninds, is a self-evident truth. I cannot, however, avoid al- 

 lusion to an illustration which has been painfully forced upon the 

 mind of every man during the past year. 



A little more than two hundred years ago, a small bitter root was 

 discovered on the coast of ChiU. From this worthless root, cultivation 

 produced the Potato. Improved as it may have been, as late as the 

 eighteenth century — a hundred years after its first introduction — En- 

 glish writers speak of it as comparatively valueless. Yet the partial 

 failure of this crop in a small part of the world, has produced an amount 

 of suffering, how uncertain in continuance — how incalculable in ex 

 tent. While it has in some measure developed the vast agricultural 

 resources of the United States, it shows better than any thing else, the 

 importance of that branch of industry to the state, and may well cause 

 reflecting men to consider whether this, of all the arts, does not the 

 most deserve encouragement and support. 



From the commencement of our Society, custom has made an 

 address, in some way connected with the subject of Agriculture, a 

 part of this day's exercises. Upon former occasions, we have had 

 age to counsel, eloquence to persuade, learning to instruct, or the 

 sound wisdom of practical experience to convince. 



Qualified but poorly in any respect, the fact that the invitation to 

 address you was given unanimously, was the strong reason which 



