306 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



the other, choice delicacies for the table, uid multi- 

 plies around us the charms of floral beauty and xu- 

 ral scenery. Both tend to beget habits of useful 

 industry and sober reflection, and to improve us in 

 all the social relations of life. It is befitting, there- 

 fore, that institutions designed to foster and pro- 

 mote improvements in these primary and associate 

 branches of labour should unite in their anniver- 

 sary celebration, and in returning thanks to the Su- 

 preme Being for the bounties of a fruitful season. 



Of the utility of these celebrations, and the exhi- 

 bition of the products of the farm and garden which 

 are made at them, I have no kind of doubt. They 

 bring to public notice whatever is new and most 

 valuable in a business which highly interests us. 

 They perform the work of years in diffusing useful 

 knowledge in all the departments of rural labour. 

 They awaken in the bosoms of hundreds the dor- 

 mant powers of the mind, which otherwise might 

 have slumbered in apathy. They excite to indus- 

 try, to emulation, and to the study of those laws 

 which everywhere control the visible creation, and 

 which enlighten and reward all who humbly seek 

 and follow their counsels. Nor is it the cultivator 

 of the farm and garden alone that are to be benefit- 

 ed by these exhibitions. Whatever tends to in- 

 crease and improve the products of the soil, serves 

 to augment the common stock, and enables the 

 grower to supply the market with more and better 

 products, and to buy more liberally of the other 

 classes in return. The merchant, the manufacturer, 

 the mechanic, and the professional man, have all, 

 therefore, as deep an interest in promoting the im- 

 provement of agriculture and horticulture as the 

 farmer and gardener have. Society is in some 

 measure a joint concern, at least so far as relates to 

 what are termed the producing classes ; the more 

 the.sr ourn by their labour, the greater is the acces- 

 sion of substantial wealth to the community. The 



