ESSEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 9 



Hon. Nathan W. Hazen was selected as the orator at Dan vers, 

 Septcmhcr 28, 1836. He spoke of the importance of agricul- 

 ture, and stated in striking phrase, that " When agriculture 

 loses the services of youth, and they desert its fields for other 

 employments, it is as though spring should be struck from the 

 seasons of the year, or should forget to bloom." He recom- 

 mended " the adoption of system in husbandry," as apt to 

 induce that minute attention and close observation on which its 

 success so much depends. 



Rev. Nathaniel Gage addressed the society at Topsfield, Sep- 

 tember 27, 1837. He laid down some valuable rules of hus- 

 bandry, and said : " A prominent difficulty, in advancing a 

 general improvement in the husbandry of the great body of 

 farmers, arises from an attachment to existing usages and a 

 dread of innovations." 



Rev. Leonard Withington spoke at the exhibition at Topsfield, 

 September 27, 1838. He advanced the idea that " we must 

 bring our manners and our political theory into more harmony. 

 Our creed must sanction our practice, and our practice must be 

 in conformity with the spirit of our creed. We must not 

 attempt to put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break 

 and the wine runnetli out and the bottles perish ; or, in plain 

 language, the republican spirit must be put into republican 

 forms ; and we must be content to take the system, the whole 

 system, with all its blessings and attendant evils." Sound 

 agricultural doctrine. 



Rev. Allen Putnam was the speaker at Georgetown, Septem- 

 ber 26, 1839. Said he : " I have a few words for the farmers' 

 wives. However skilful, industrious and prudent your husbands 

 may be, their success in money-making depends as much upon 

 you as upon them." Does any farmer doubt this ? 



Hon. Asahel Huntington, the orator for 1840, at what place 

 the Transactions do not inform us, declared that " to secure an 

 increased and increasing production, manure is the great and 

 principal instrumentality. This is the beginning, the middle 

 and the end of thriving husbandry." 



Alonzo Gray, A. M., the speaker at Georgetown, September 

 29, 1841, proclaimed " that in order to secure constant progress 

 and permanent improvement in agriculture, its principles must 



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