No. 7. 



Agricultural Address. 



219 



Address 



Of Hon. Morris Longstreth, before the 

 Jeffersonville Agricultural Association, 

 of Montgomerrj county, Pa. 



In rising to address the "Jeffersonville 

 Agricultural Association," you will allow 

 me to express my hearty congratulations, 

 that you have at length followed the exam- 

 ple of the intelligent of other States and 

 countries, by making an united effort in the 

 great cause of agricultural improvement. 



" /rt union there is strength;''^ and this 

 axiom is especially applicable to the tillers 

 of the soil, who, from the nature of their 

 employment, must habitually live and la- 

 bour, in a measure isolated — and therefore 

 eminently feel the necessity of stated meet 

 ings, to discuss matters appertaining to this 

 greatest of all temporal interests. 



In thus associating, you have not only 

 consulted your true advantage, but you have 

 also followed the instinct of the age, in con- 

 centrating the light of many intellects on a 

 given point; and for the benefit of others, it 

 may be suggested that your deliberations in 

 future should be recorded, and transmitted 

 for publication to some agricultural journal. 

 In this facility of preserving facts by print- 

 ing, lies our greatest advantage over past 

 generations, and the germ of improvement 

 in all time to come ; for no hand can write, 

 no tongue can tell, what sublime discoveries 

 in the science of agriculture, may have per- 

 ished with the myriads who have gone be- 

 fore us, from the period when the command 

 went forth, " In the sweat of thy face, shalt 

 thou eat bread." For in the midst of his 

 toils, the agriculturist may derive new vigor 

 to his nerve and new strength to his arm, 

 from the reflection, tiiat his occupation, 

 blended with that of the herdsman, has been 

 especially appointed to man, as the condition 

 of his existence, by the fiat of his Creator. 



Labour, moreover, has been blessed by 

 Heaven; and the enjoyment of Paradise it- 

 self, without the occupation of the faculties 

 bestowed upon him, was totally incompati- 

 ble with the happiness of man. This is 

 proven by the fact, that when he was cre- 

 ated and placed in the garden of Eden, he 

 was not to eat the fruits of idleness, but he 

 was enjoined "to dress it and to keep it." It 

 is therefore an ordinary error to imagine 

 that the necessity of labour involves also an 

 onerous burden ; — whereas, all whose fate it 

 is to have no occupation, are among the most 

 miserable of mankind. Idleness on the one 

 hand, and excessive labour on the other, 

 constitute the extremes, and which is the 

 greater evil of the two, is a problem very 



difficult of solution. The happy medium is 

 moderate labour and an adequate reward; 

 and this condition, which incidentally in- 

 cludes sufficient leisure for the cultivation of 

 the social relations, literary pursuits, and po- 

 litical duties, is attained in this common- 

 wealth, as perfectly as under any system of 

 government with which we are acquainted, 

 ancient or modern. 



Labour, being of divine institution, and 

 necessary to the well-being of man, is there- 

 fore honourable; and as nations emerge from 

 barbarism to the light of civilization, tliis 

 truth is fully recognized. And while we 

 accord to the manufacturer, the mechanic, 

 and the miner, the reward due to their use- 

 ful pursuits, it will not be forgotten, that to 

 the tiller of the soil they owe the very staff 

 of life, and that his vocation lies at the root 

 of human existence. 



Pre-eminently honourable, therefore, be- 

 cause pre-eminently useful, is the life of the 

 honest farmer; and if he ever should be 

 tempted to repine at bis lot, and covet the 

 luxuries of city life, let him beware of the 

 thorn that lies concealed under the gaudy 

 exterior of fashion ; and of the vices that 

 lurk in the precincts and purlieus of our 

 cities. Of the vicissitudes of mercantile af- 

 fairs, I can speak with the advantage of 

 much personal experience in earlier life; 

 and may safely say of my own knowledge, 

 that of every ten individuals who devote 

 themselves to commerce, under the credit 

 system, not more than one is eventually 

 successful. Let him remember, on the 

 other hand, that in the refined, but highly 

 artificial state of society in our cities, our 

 most eminent citizens propose to themselves, 

 as the appropriate reward for editorial, legal 

 and medical ability, artistic merit, and mer- 

 cantile success, an evening of existence, de- 

 voted to the innocent, natural and pure en- 

 joyment of life in the country. 



Cato says, — and we can have no higher 

 Pagan authority, — " That the country man 

 has fewer bad thoughts, and as his property 

 binds him to the state, not so much as a 

 pledge, but by the stronger and better ties 

 of feeling; so it is natural that a labour 

 wholesome to the body, whose powers it 

 keeps in exercise; and not performed in 

 gloomy dwellings, but in the unrestricted 

 life of nature, in the sunshine and the storm, 

 should preserve the mind in perfect sound- 

 ness, and thereby cherish a sobriety and 

 acuteness of observation, a calm and unbi- 

 assed judgment. The free country man, 

 who cultivates and reaps his own field, en- 

 joys in the progress of the seasons, and the 

 nature of his employments, an ever-varying 

 and liberal relaxation, without which it is 



