MR. newhall's address. 5 



our hearts, and saddening our spirits, is, that we shall see his face 

 no more, nor hear his voice in our assemblies, and anniversaries. 



He is not here to-day to instruct and edify us, by his eloquence, 

 or his experience. Ho will meet us no more on earth forever. His 

 work is accomplished, his labors are ended, he is gone as we trust to 

 the enjoyment of a higher life in a better world. 



We have alsu been recently called to grieve, for the loss of one of 

 the most intelligent and efficient farmers in the county of Middlesex; 

 the Hon. Elias Phinney, of Lexington. 



Mr. Phinney as a practical farmer, and one who made farming a 

 creditable business, had no superior, if he had his equal, in the 

 Commonwealth. He has done much to improve our stock of neat 

 cattle and swine. By his kind attention, as the agent of the Massa- 

 chusetts Society for the promotion of Agriculture, we now have in 

 our County, a fine Ayershire animal for the improvement of our 

 Dairy stock, in relation to which he has been quite solicitous that our 

 good farmers in Essex County should give the experiment a fair trial. 



He has left to the agricultural community a rich legacy in his 

 communications of experiments, and success in farming. But he 

 also is gone to the land of his fathers, from whence no traveller re- 

 turns. 



But "we a little longer stay," and we must turn our minds to the 

 duties and labors that now devolve upon us, however humble the lot 

 or hmited the talents assigned us by the great Proprietor of our 

 lives, who requires us to be faithful in the occupation of what he 

 bestows, and will not hold us answerable for that which we have not 

 received. 



I most deeply regret that some one of the many learned as well 

 as experienced farmers among us, had not been selected, to have 

 supplied the place of our deceased brother, instead of myself. For 

 when I take a retrospective view of the doings of the Society for the 

 last thirty years, and consider who have preceded me — the Picker- 

 ings the Saltonstalls, and other learned and eminent men, I am con- 

 vinced that anything that I may offer you, will be like a barley 

 cake after wheat loaves. But having put my hand to ihb plough, I 

 cannot look back ; I must therefore turn my furrow as best I may. 



The agriculture of the County of Essex, and of our state, for some 

 two or three generations after our fathers secured titles to their 

 farma, had erected their buildings and cleared a field for grain and 



