110 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



weeds, and moss-covered tcablets were generally to be seen, 

 now may be witnessed beautiful sites, natural scenery and 

 embellished lots, which awaken sensations that no language 

 can describe, where the meandei-ing path wends you to the 

 spot in which rest the remains of the loved and lost of earth, 

 where the rustling pine mournfully sighs in the passing 

 breeze, the willow weeps in responsive grief, and where the 

 verdurous evergreen, breathing in perennial life, is a fit em- 

 blem of those celestial fields, where the leaf shall never 

 wither, the flower never fade, and fruition never end. 



I have thus spoken to you, my friends, in a manner which 

 I hope may not be considered as infippropriate or irrelevant 

 to the mission of this Board. My object has been to re- 

 cord some of the important events which mark the progress 

 of our age, — to illustrate the advantages which flow from sci- 

 entific knowledge as connected with the genius and enter- 

 prise of man, — to awaken and excite a love for rural life and 

 rural pursuits, and to show that the present is an advance 

 on the past in all that pertains to a higher state of civiliza- 

 tion and the welfare of our race. 



And now, in conclusion, let me say, I know of no better 

 temporal acquisition than a happy rural home, — a home where 

 you may sit amid the fruiting of your trees and the blooming 

 of your plants, — a home embellished by your own taste, and 

 endeared by pleasures shared in common with the loved ones 

 of your family — a happy country home, with trees and fruits 

 and flowers, where you may find enjoyment, not in hungry 

 greed for gold, not in the conflicts for political distinction, 

 not in the strife for place, power or renown. For more than 

 fifty years I have trod the crowded marts of trade and com- 

 merce. I have shared in the privileges and perplexities of 

 public service, and I have enjoyed the soul-reviving sympa- 

 thy of family and friends, but I have never forgotten my first 

 love for rural life. Oh, no ; whenever I could rescue a little 

 time from the cares of business, — whether at rosy morn, golden 

 noon or declining day, I have fled to the garden and green- 

 house, to my favorite trees and plants, that I might commune 

 and cooperate with nature in her secret laboratory of wonder- 

 working power. This is my idea of a happy, rural home ; 

 and this my idea of a happy man, — he who is contented with 



