For, indeed, if there be any thing calculated to inspire a 

 spirit of devout dependence and gratitude in the heart of 

 man, it is the course of nature as contemplated in the ope- 

 rations of the husbandman. There are at least two things 

 which a farmer can never do without, — the sun and the 

 shower. No industry, no science, can supply their place. 

 For almost every thing else there may be some sort of sub- 

 stitute contrived. But who can contrive a substitute for a 

 day's sunshine, or even for an hour's rain ? What artifi- 

 cial irrigation could prevent or mitigate the consequences 

 of a midsummer's drought? What mechanical arrange- 

 ment of stoves, what chemical evolution of heat, could 

 stay the ravages of an early frost ? How impotent is the 

 arm of man, in presence of agencies like these, blighting 

 in a week, or even nipping in a night, the whole result of 

 a year of toil! We may invent curious implements and 

 marvellous machines to save our own labor; but we can 

 invent nothing which shall dispense with the blessing of 

 God. Man may plough, man may plant; but man cannot 

 give the increase. The great indispensable machinery of 

 agriculture must ever be the " Mecanique Celeste," that 

 sublime and stupendous system of suns and spheres and 

 rolling orbs, moving on in serene and solemn majesty above 

 us, and — 



" For ever singing, as they shine. 

 The hand that made us is Divine." 



And now, Mr. President and Gentlemen, I am here for no 

 rhetorical display. I shall attempt nothing of the poetry or 

 romance of agriculture. But I desire to invite your atten- 

 tion to a few plain and practical considerations, which have 

 struck me as not unimportant or uninteresting in them- 

 selves, and as not inappropriate to an occasion of this sort. 



Few things have been more noticeable, and few things, I 

 am sure, more gratifying to us all, than the increased inter- 



