124 WORCESTER SOCIETY. 



WORCESTER COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SO- 

 CIETY. 



The Ploughing Match. 



The committee on the ploughing match submit the follow- 

 ing report: 



The plough is the index of the true glory of a nation. Where 

 the husbandman drives his team afield, and the plough upturns 

 the grassy furrow, there are heard the jocund laugh and the 

 merry shout of happy, peaceful hearts ; there are seen the lovely 

 arts of peace, the waving fields, the thriving villages, and the 

 blissful homes of an industrious, intelligent people. 



The "pomp and pageantry" of war become dim beside the 

 more substantial glories of agriculture. The jeweled sword, 

 the golden epaulette, the dancing plume, fade into nothingness 

 even compared with the unadorned, wood and iron plough. 



The gorgeous palace, the massive tower, the magnificent 

 cathedra], and all the surroundings of royal splendor, pale 

 before those simple but sublime and beautiful results which 

 spring up from the furrow of the plough. 



When the prophet of old cast his Heaven-enlightened glance 

 into the far future of millennial glory, he adds the crowning 

 touch to his inspired picture of perfect beauty and happiness, 

 by telling us that swords shall be turned into pruning hooks 

 and spears into plough shares. The history of the past, and 

 the prophecy of the future, both declare the inherent and pre- 

 eminent glory of the plough. 



Show us the plough of any age or any people, and we will 

 tell you the rank which that age or people holds in the scale 

 of civilization and refinement. When and where the plough 

 is misshapen, uncouth or clumsy, then and there you will find 

 the people void of intelligence, virtue and enterprise. But 

 when and where the plough is elegant, tasteful and in- 



