AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



9 



PUBLISHED BV JOSEPH BKECK & CO., NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agricultural VVakehocse.) 



rot,, .vvi. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 21, 1S38. 



NO. 33. 



Mdress before the Essex AfrricuUurnl Society, 

 It Topsfetd, September 27, 1837, at their annual 

 Cattle Shotc. By Nathaniel Gage. 

 ' Presideiit and Gentlemen : 



3ii the return of an occa.sioii full of interest not 

 ly to the cultivator of the aoil, but to the true 

 er of his country, you have niet together in the 

 Tiple of Devotion, for the expression of your 

 teful praise to the " God of the harvest;" and 

 the consideration of a topic second in inipor- 

 je 10 no object of mere earthly pursuit, 

 et me confess, in the outset, what you, other- 

 e, would not fail to perceive, iliat I am incoin- 

 :nt to do justice to such an occasion. Though 

 son of an Essex farmer, devoted, in early life, 

 ihe pursuit of agriculture, it is now twenty 

 rs since I have been, practically, engaged, un- 

 occasionally, in this healthful and happy oc- 

 itioji. Permit me, then, to express the hope 

 , as I cannot say what the occupation may 

 ly demand, you will give your attention to 

 e general remarks upon the importaice and 

 lify of agriculture as a pursuit; upon seme 

 rovemcnts alnndy made ; upon the good in- 

 iices to be anticipated from the diffusion of,... 

 lalion. 



hat agriculture, which, by high authority, has 

 1 deuomiiiated less an art, than an admirable 

 binalion of the most important arts, has not 

 iyed that degree of attention, amongst us, to 

 h it is eminently entitled, is an assertion too 

 ously true to need the aid of argument in its 

 lort. 



j)romote the welfare of the great mass of 

 community, the proper degree of attention 

 t be devoted to the various occupations, the 

 Its of which are necessary to the general com- 

 and subsistence. No peo|ile can depart, ma- 

 lly, for any length of time, from such a priii- 



1 with impunity. When this balance is dis- 

 3d, by a secession of large numbers from one 

 )rtant pursuit to crowd into another, public 

 ell as individual suffering must, ere long, en- 



And, especially, must such be the case, 

 1 the occupation from which the secession is 

 1 is, like agriculture, the great source of jiro- 

 on — is to the nation at large, what the oircu- 

 n of the blood is to the animal body That 

 has, to some extent, been the tendency of 

 >'cars, in New England, the careful observer 

 have seen. Perhaps this tendency is to be 

 bed, in part, to an idea, which has prevailed 

 isively, to tint: that agriculture is less respect- 

 as a permanent pursuit, than other avoca- 

 This idea is composed of unmixed error, 

 e is no employment of man more important; 

 vhen conducted with appro|)riate intelligence, 

 more honorable than this. The same ten- 

 y may be also, in part, ascribed to the eager 

 e for rapid nccunnilation, which has been so 

 inent a feature in the proceedings of the last 



few years. The slow and moderate returns, which 

 the soil affords to its rultivatcrs, have been, too 

 often, spurned for those golden harvests, that have 

 dazzled so many eyes, on fields to which the 

 plough and the sickle are unknown. iMeanwliilo, 

 the moral considerations, wliiCli are, so immensely, 

 in favor of the well-tried path of patient effort, 

 have been overlooked. But eyes, before which 

 visions of uncoimted wealth have been holding 

 their seductions, are beginning to see things in 

 the light of sober truth. Phantoms have vanished 

 away. Realities are now seen and felt. The at- 

 tention, the hopes of thousands, who latel/ looked 

 upon the cultivation of the soil as fit only for the 

 patient plodiler, — alike destitute of ambition and 

 enterprise, — are now turned to agiiculture, as the 

 rich fountain whence the very life-blood is diffus- 

 ed through the community ; — as a mine of wealth 

 far more substantial than any to which the brains 

 of speculators have given birth. Alultilndes,thrown 

 by the disasters of the times, from their airy -'as- 

 tles and brought to the ground, are now trusting, 

 like Antaeus in the fable, for siipport to their 

 mother earth. 



A pursuit, like the farmer's, should never I)e 

 deemed unworthy the attention of an enlightened, 

 patriotic roan. '1 he celebrated games of Greece, 

 Ui Ikt proudest days — games designed as nurse- 

 ries of a patriotic spirit and of hardy virtues — were 

 unworthy in comparison with a festival like yours ; 

 — a festival designed to promote the peaceful and 

 healthful pursuit of agriculture. The object of 

 your Association, gentlemen, is unmingled gnoil. 

 In every light in which agriculture can be viewcil, 

 it claims respect. It was to a branch o( this oc- 

 cupation that our common father was devoted, 

 when fresh from the forming hand of the Creator. 

 It was the prominent pursuit of men in the golden 

 age — days of which we read as adorned with sim- 

 plicity and innocence. And, within the limits ef 

 authentic history, we find, among nations most 

 eminent for whatever was great and honorable, 

 this mode of life held in special and deserved re- 

 spect. 



" In ancient limes, the sacred plough employed 

 The kings and awful fathers of mankind." 



' It is,' says a distinguished author, ' the sub- 

 serviency of agriculture to the wants of mankind, 

 connected with its sober and healthfid pleasures 

 and the spirit of independence, which it fosters, 

 that has secured to it, in every age, the first rank 

 among the useful arts ; and obtained for it, in ev- 

 ery country, the patronage of those most eminent 

 for wisdom and virtire. 'J'lie lienors paid to it in 

 China, take their date from the i-emotest antiqni- 

 ty ; and through the purer ages of the Roman 

 Republic, it was held in the highest estimation. 

 In England, the name of a Russel, so proudly 

 distinguished in her annals, stands pre-eminent 

 among those who have patroniztd this noble art. 

 And the great founder of American liberty, when 

 the toils and danger's of warfare were ended, re- 

 tired to the cultivation of that soil, which his valor 



and his virtues, had lendereil fi-ee.'* And all 

 classes, in society shoirld rejoice in every effort, 

 like your-s, gentlemen, to bring this eminently 

 inrporlant pmsuit into gi'cater favor. We see, in 

 such efforts, auspices whicli should gladden every 

 patriotic heart. Jt certainly argues wi-ong some- 

 where, tliat a branch of business, of such )iar-a- 

 mount inrportauce to every order of the commu- 

 nity, shoulii have been permitted so far to languish 

 as to render us, iir no small degree, dependent for 

 our bread upon the South and West, and even 

 upoit Eur-ope. In the elaborate and excellent ad- 

 flressf delivered befoi-e you, on your last Anniver- 

 sary, the orator-, after glancing at the decline of 

 interest in agricultui-e, among a portion of the 

 community, and the readiness with which they 

 entrust themselves to the cuiTent of hazardous en- 

 terprises andspcculatioirs, observed : "the present 

 state of things can hardly'be of long continuairce." 

 How soon was that prediction fulfilled ! The 

 tide has already turned. Many, who seemed to 

 have forgot' ,i that the productions of agricultui'e 

 are the supp.irt of man, would now look upon the 

 possession of a good farm as almost an earthly 

 par-adise. Agriculture is now the chief hope of 

 this natioir. Its productions are looked to, as iln: 

 means of wiping off our foreign debt; and of 

 giving an impri'sc to the first wave, in that tide of 

 future a( live jr.TOfperiiy, for vvhieh all hearts are 

 so anxiously waiting. 



The condition of the farmer-, among you, is as 

 desirable, or moi-e so, indeed, than in any oilier 

 [lortion of the world. You possess a high advan- 

 tage over the husbandmen of most countries, in 

 being the proprietors of the soil you cultivate. — 

 You thus feel, to its full extent of influence, the 

 stimulus of personal intei-ost in the subject ; in the 

 pi-ocesses of ciiltiiie adopted ; the kinrls of pro- 

 duce ; the impi-ovements made, &c. That inter- 

 est, like the principle of gravitation in the physi- 

 cal world, gives union, system, vigor, to all your 

 |)lans and effurts. 



In Sicily, once, like Egypt, the granar-y of 

 Rome, we ai'e told, that the nobles own about two 

 thirds of the soil, while they pay but one-fifteenth 

 of the taxes. And the husbandman, even after he 

 has raised his corn, cannot, without permission 

 from a higher power, sell a loaf to a hrmgry ti-av- 

 eller wilhmit being subject to fine and imprison- 

 ment. In Italy, often called the garden of Europe, 

 blessed with a most fertile soil, beautiful fields, 

 well watered, covered with pcrpenial vegetation, 

 divided into a thousanil small enclosirres, all cul, 

 tivated like gardens; yet, says the traveller, on 

 entering the houses of the eultivMto^s, you observe 

 an entile al>senre of all the conveniences of life, a 

 table of the most extreme frugality, and an ap- 

 peai-ance of the greatest penury, ip the midst of u 

 country producing every thing which the wants 

 of the most luxurious can lequire, The cultivator 

 is not the proprietor of the soil. He is reduced 



"Reviewer of Sir H. Uavy on Agricultural Chemistry. 

 "By N W. Hazen, Esij. 



