J. H. W. PAGE'S ADDRESS. 641 



vision against the far more frequent and more disastrous depre- 

 dations by which our soil is despoiled of its treasures, through 

 the want of science and skill on the part of those who till it. 

 These depredations are none the less treacherous, or the less 

 formidable, I need not say, for being carried on in no malicious 

 spirit, and by no hostile hands. The worst robberies, of every 

 sort, moral or pecuniary, of character, of property, or of oppor- 

 tunity, are those which a man commits upon himself. It is 

 due to ourselves, it is due even more to our children, that the 

 national soil should not be impaired by our ignorance or our 

 neglect. It is a great trust-estate, of which each generation is 

 entitled only to the use, and for the strip and waste of which 

 the grand Proprietor of the Universe will hold us to account. 

 ' Whether the promotion of agricultural education shall be 

 undertaken through systematic courses of scientific lectures, 

 or by agricultural schools and colleges, with experimental farms 

 attached to them, or by the preparation and distribution of 

 agricultural tracts and treatises, or by all combined, it is for 

 the farmers to say. What they say will not fail to be rightly 

 and jeffectively said. With them words will be things ; for no 

 government will venture to resist their deliberate and united 

 appeals. 



IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE. 



[Extracts from an Address delivered at last Fair of the Plymouth County Agricul- 

 tural Society. By Hon. J, H. VV. Page, of New Bedford.] 



Is not agriculture, then, an important and honorable calling? 

 In comparison with it, the learned professions dwindle into in- 

 significance. 



Agriculture, — Manufactures,— Commerce. As Faith, Hope 

 and Charity form the arch of the Christian graces, so these of 

 the industrial interests. Every manufactory-driving wheel may 

 stop, and agriculture retain its vital and paramount import- 

 ance ; every sail may rot, and agriculture survive, the stay of 

 the nations ; manufactures and commerce may both perish, 

 and agriculture still hold its place as of the first necessity, and 

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