2 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



two woollen mills, so far as I can ascertain, and depended en- 

 tirely upon agriculture and commerce for her growth and pros- 

 perity. North of the Merrimack River, in the now thriving 

 towns of Lawrence, Methuen, Haverhill, Amesbury and Salis- 

 bury, there were then less than three thousand inhabitants ; 

 Lynn was but a village ; Salem a small commercial town ; a few 

 baggage wagons transported all the merchandise in the county, 

 and a few stage coaches all the travellers who depended upon 

 public conveyance. 



It was in this condition of affairs in the country and in this 

 county that " a meeting of farmers and others, inhabitants of 

 the county of Essex, was held at Cyrus Cumming's tavern, in 

 Topsfield, on Monday, the sixteenth of February, in the year of 

 our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, for the pur- 

 pose of forming an agricultural society for the county of Essex." 



It seems to me proper that we should here pay a just tribute 

 to the most conspicuous of those officers of this society, who, by 

 their distinguished public service, have recorded their names in 

 the history of our country. 



Foremost among these in point of time and of illustrious pub- 

 lic service stands Timothy Pickering. His patriotic career is 

 known to you all. Commencing with his gallant resistance to 

 British aggression at the Nortii Bridge, in his own town of 

 Salem, a successful armed resistance made two months before 

 the stand at Concord, he served his country through the war of 

 the Revolution in military life, and through the administrations 

 of Washington and Adams in civil service. Bold, honest and 

 uncompromising, he represented all that stern and defiant pur- 

 pose which characterized the founders of our government. No 

 personal considerations ever controlled his public action. 

 Regardless at all times of popular clamor, perhaps too defiant 

 of the revolutionary thought of his time, he pursued his stern 

 and steady way througli life as a statesman, and at last sought 

 repose as an intelligent, practical farmer on his native soil. It 

 is for others to record his important service as a public servant 

 during the most trying days of our republic ; but it is for us to 

 remember that he was one of the pioneer farmers of this county ; 

 that he was one of the most accurate of our early agricultural 

 investigators ; and that during the ten years of his presidency 

 he filled the records of this society with his sound practical ob- 



