iiR. newiiall's address. 15 



The variety of tlie feathered tribe at the exhibition to-day, the 

 cages of fowls, ducks, turkeys and geese, promise -well for a rich 

 thanksgiving dinner. 



Having passed in a cursory manner over our fields and pastures, 

 through our orchards and gardens, and noticed the improved condi- 

 tion of our domestic animals, I am reminded of an anecdote of the 

 late venerable Timothy Pickering. Something more than twenty 

 years since, I had the honor of being associated with him, on the 

 committee for visiting farms offered for premium. One of the farms 

 •we visited was that of Col. Newell, of West Newbury. After we 

 had been over the farm, and had seen the different animals, Mr. 

 Pickering remarked to Col. Newell that having seen all he had to 

 show out of doors, we had better go in and see what the stock was 

 in the house, where we found some fine specimens of the old Anglo- 

 Saxon race, whose ancestor came from England in sixteen hundred 

 and thirty, and settled in Lynn. 



As a commendable zeal is manifested by our farmers to improve 

 the different races of animals that perish, perhaps it may not be 

 amiss to refer to those, "one of whom is of more value than many 

 sparrows, yea, than the cattle upon a thousand hills." And to inquire 

 whether we are pursuing a course of education with our children best 

 adapted for the happiness, prosperity and durability of our poster- 

 ity. Reference has frequently been made in addresses to our society 

 of the propriety and the utiUty of educating our sons for farmers ; 

 but that of our daughters has rarely been mentioned, although the 

 future condition of our posterity depends more upon the physical 

 education of our females than upon all other circumstances. The 

 employments of farmers' daughters generally, until within some 

 twenty or thirty years, was well calculated to ensure a robust consti- 

 tution and a vigorous mind ; but circumstances beyond our control 

 have laid away the healthful spinning wheel and loom into the ar- 

 chives of the garret or some untenanted outhouse, and the dairy and 

 housework Lave very generally been assigned to hired help, as by 

 our present course of education our daughters must attend school 

 from the ag3 of four to sixteen, eighteen, or twenty years. Fifty 

 years ago the education of the minds of farmers' daughters was al- 

 most wholly neglected, while their occupations were such as to ensure 

 bodily health and vigor. But the course and object of education 

 within a few years past has been almost entirely changed. The great 



