lis APPENDIX. 



crtioiis of the Society its zeal must be excited. But 

 zeal is not to be excited, without a conviction of the 

 importance of the cause in which we are engaged. 

 May I he permitted then, to declare my conviction, 

 that amidst the profusion of Societies with which the 

 present age abounds, there is none more useful, or 

 more dignified, than that for the iivomotion of Agri- 

 culture, indeed, in point of utility^ I might justly 

 say that it precedes all others. Because, even if 

 mankind couid exist without Agriculture, yet they 

 roukl exist only in a savage state, and in small num- 

 bers. The great command ^^ increase andmidtiijlij,^^ 

 could not be obeyed. There could be nothing worthy 

 the name of art, or science, or literature. When I 

 cast my eye on the map of Pennsylvania, and view 

 the vast quantity of excellent land, in the rude state 

 iti which nature formed it, 1 am struck with astonish- 

 ment at the multitudes which throng our cities, strug- 

 gling witli hunger, cold, and disease. Nor is my 

 wonder confined to tiic lower orders of society. For 

 i sec many of liberal education, and with the means 

 of acijuiiiiig a competency in the country, wasting 

 their lives in disgraceful idleness, or fruitless efforts 

 lo force their way througli the crov/ds which block up 

 every avcinie to prolit or preferment. Tlie flood of 

 rommcrcc which set upon our shores during five and 



