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Agricultural Address delivered during the 18tli Annual 

 Fair, by the Hon. H. Meigs, Recording Secretary of the 

 American Institute. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 



The American Institute, in its wish to provide on this occasion snch 

 an address as would find favor in your judgments, had, on looking 

 around our Republic for one capable of so delightful and instructive 

 an address as would have deeply interested you in these most pure 

 and most useful subjects, invited the'aid of the Hon, George Lunt, of 

 Newburyport, whose richly stored mind would have poured out be- 

 fore you the true immense values of the farm, and also would have 

 graced with all the garlands of poetry the glorious regions of the flower 

 garden. The Institute, with great regret for his unexpected indispo- 

 sition, has directed me to exert my humble ability to fill the void thus 

 produced. In prompt obedience to its direction, as an ardent servant 

 in the great cause to which the Institute directs the greatest portion of 

 its energy, I am honored with the task of delivering to you the views 

 of the American Institute in relation to these subjects. I beg your 

 kind indulgence while I make the efTort, assuring you, that if I should 

 fail in pleasing you, it will not be for want of enthusiasm in the cause. 



Ladies and gentlemen : Let me begin by borrowing from the great- 

 est man that ever lived, from our own dearly beloved Washington, his 

 opinion of the Agricultural cause ; an opinion among the very last 

 communicated to his fellow men. That opinion, contained in his mes- 

 sage to Congress in 1796, was, That the Government of this Republic 

 should then establish a separate Department for AgricuUure ; that tlj,e 

 purse of the nation should be freely employed in the cause. He en- 

 treated Congress to establish a Home Department Jor Agriculture. 

 The American Institute is now, and has been for some time past, en- 



