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FRANKLIN SOCIETY. 



FRANKLIN COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Ploughing. 



The Plough, the Loom, and the Forge, are represent- 

 atives of the three grand useful arts of life, that feed, clothe, 

 and shelter mankind; that form the basis of all our domes- 

 tic economy, the foundation upon which has been erected, 

 through the stages of continual progress, the grand, brilliant, 

 and enduring superstructure of our glorious modern civiliza- 

 tion. What the key-stone is to the arch, what the corner- 

 stone is to the temple, is the humble, ungainly and earth- 

 begrimed plough — in the eyes of the ignorant and unin- 

 itiated so insignificant and contemptible — to the blessed and 

 beautiful culture that is transporting the solitary place and 

 the wilderness into a beautiful garden, and bringing back to 

 earth the ancient Eden. Not a single grain waves its banner 

 of living green in the breeze, or fills out its little granary of 

 ears with rich store of nutriment for man; not a tree bends 

 down with its blushing, golden fruit, replete with precious 

 nectarean juices, sweeter than the food of Olympian deities ; 

 not a flower unveils its starry eyes to the sunshine, or rose per- 

 fumes the breath of the gale from its fragrant chalices, — that 

 may not owe a richer value, a greater worth, a higher grace, a 

 sweeter, diviner loveliness, to that instrument of too often little 

 valued labor, there in the dark and humble furrow, through 

 whose prowess the chaos of the outward world is being grad- 

 ually brought into a grateful and blessed order, and the rugged 

 old earth smoothed and softened into a smiling, bounteous 

 garden, a paradise of beauty and delight for man. It is the 

 fertile produce of the plough that feeds the fresh comeliness of 

 blooming youth, that sustains the stout sinews and stalwart 



