18 MR. cushing's address. 



man of the charms of Eden. We may fail thus to get some- 

 thing of city graces : we shall keep the more of comitry 

 strength. Let us hold fast to the sheet-anchor and stay of 

 nations. Let science be applied to augment the productive- 

 ness and value of the agricultural lands of the Commonwealth, 

 as its population increases, and other interests attain great rela- 

 tive weight : to which end, the State should be called on to 

 establish an Agricultural School worthy of her wealth and 

 fame. If our soil will not produce, nor the climate ripen, those 

 great staples which suj)ply our foreign trade, cotton, tobacco, 

 sugar, wheat, rice, yet other products of the earth are not want- 

 ing here, as the means and the subject of agricultural industry 

 and prosperity. Let it never be forgotten that agriculture is 

 the conservative element in our social system, under whatever 

 name of party that interest may for the time being appear. 

 Finally, if we should ever incline to doubt as to the relation of 

 agriculture to life, to the character of men, and to the destiny 

 of nations, let us look back on the history of our country, and 

 remember how many of its greatest generals, like Washington, 

 Jackson, Taylor, — how many of its greatest statesmen, like 

 Jefferson, Madison, Calhoun, — to say nothing of living men, — 

 have been the production and growth of rural life, and have 

 clung, with invincible tenacity, amid all the changes and 

 chances of the loftiest flights of greatness, to the pursuits and 

 the interests of their mother-earth. 



