in different parts of the State and of the nation ; their 

 efficacy in sowing the seeds and increasing the harvest 

 of mutual acquaintance, mutual regard, mutual respect, 

 among all, of all classes, sexes, and occupations, who at- 

 tend them ; their annual operation in garnering up in the 

 hearts of each one of us a seasonable supply of good-will 

 and friendly sentiment towards each other, against the day 

 when personal competitions or political conflicts shall come 

 round to bring blight and mildew to so many of the nobler 

 feelings of the soul, and to threaten starvation and famine 

 to the whole better part of our nature, — these are among 

 the results of such festivals as this, which must ever com- 

 mend them to the regard of every Christian philanthropist. 

 You are here, my friends, from all quarters of the Old 

 Colony, and from many other parts of the Common- 

 wealth and of the country, from all pursuits and profes- 

 sions and political parties, to join hands and hearts in fur- 

 therance of the great industrial interests of the people. 

 Some of you are here as practical producers, proud to dis- 

 play the results of your own labor and skill in the field or 

 the dairy ; and some of you have come as amateurs, gra- 

 tified to behold the successes and achievements of your 

 neighbors or friends. And we have all come as consu- 

 mers, whether of our own or of other people's produce ; 

 and we all rejoice in the assurances and evidences which 

 such occasions afford, that it will not be the fault of the 

 ignorance or the idleness of man, if an abundance of the 

 best food shall ever be wanting to ourselves or our children. 

 But we have all come, too, I trust and believe, in no vain 

 and arrogant reliance on human industry or human science 

 for our daily bread, but with hearts grateful towards Hea- 

 ven for the gracious promise that seed-time and harvest 

 shall never fail, and for the great providential agencies to 

 which we primarily owe whatever of agricultural success 

 we have enjoyed or witnessed. 



