112 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



will allow mo to expand this thought a little in this place, an 

 island peculiar in its position as respects ftxrming, and an audi- 

 ence, a large part of which are not directly interested in agri- 

 culture, and therefore easily impatient of an agricultural 

 address. 



Had I time I could show the connection between tilling the 

 soil, and the flowers, buds, leaves and grasses which now adorn 

 your bonnets, yea, more even — the material of which they 

 are made. So also the dresses which you wear and the houses 

 you live in, with their architectural beauty, all have their 

 fitness and appropriateness accredited to soil tilling, as the pri- 

 mal starting point. The fluted columns which support and 

 ornament some of your dwellings are but amplified imitations 

 of the rushes we see growing. The symmetry and gracefulness 

 of the carved vine, which with its spiral leaves and rich clus- 

 ters adorns these fluted columns, are but transcripts of nature. 

 The patterns of your carpets, of the wall papers, of your skil- 

 fully wrought centre pieces, the beautiful paintings of land- 

 scape scenery which adorn your homes, all, all are gifts of 

 nature through him who has studied her works. But this is 

 not all. Engrafted on this very agricultural system which to- 

 day we would encourage, we find many choice fruits of litera- 

 ture ; fruits whose beauty and sweetness would never suggest 

 their origin did not occasions like this call for a glance at their 

 origin and results. 



When then did such gatherings commence, and what have 

 they been doing for the world ? We mark them first among 

 those old Greeks, whose harmonious language is the pride of 

 the learned, and whose very harmony would have died, and all 

 their beautiful mythology, from which our poets glean their 

 brightest thoughts, had they not established their Olympic fairs 

 nearly three thousand years ago. And what was done at these 

 fairs ? First, they were merely trials of physical skill, where 

 women were not allowed to be present. At length an excep- 

 tion was made to this law of exclusion, in favor of the priestess 

 of Ceres, the goddess of fruits and harvests, and certain other 

 virgins. Soon we find that the attendants of Ceres had effected 

 a great improvement in the style of the entertainments. Con- 

 tests in poetry and music were introduced, and women became 

 successful competitors for prizes. We learn, too, that they 



