MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



AGRICULTURE AND WAR. 



From an Address before the Ilousatouic Agricultural Society, Sept. 26, 1861. 



BY GEORGE B. LORIXG. 



We are to-day upon the height which marks the rise and fall 

 of the farmer's season. Behind us is the morning of the year, 

 the glowing and luxuriant summer, with its promises and its 

 growth, sweet and beautiful with blossoms, constant in its labors 

 through the long days and the short and feverish nights, radiant 

 with the heated and molten air, hung with the heavy drapery of 

 massive clouds, filled with the ardor and exuberance of youth- 

 ful life. Before us lie the lengthening shadows of the declining 

 day, of autumn with its weight of ripening harvests, with its 

 landscape on which the repose of maturity has settled down, 

 overhung with bluer and cooler skies, enveloped with a misty 

 stillness, which tells of bounteousness and plenty. And, as we 

 survey our fields of toil on. either hand, how should our hearts 

 swell once more with gratitude, and our hope revive, in the 

 presence of those blessings which the heavens above and the 

 earth beneath are constantly bestowing upon the faithful and 

 devoted husbandman. 



This is indeed a year of plenty. The earth has dispensed her 

 stores with large and liberal hand. Our skies have been serene ; 

 the soft falling dew, and the " diffusive rain," have cheered the 

 growing leaf and blade ; all nature has worn a smiling face ; 

 and her full lap now offers its abundance, like a kind and gentle 

 mother, to cheer the hearts of all her sons. 



If genial seasons, and fertile fields, and groaning harvests, 

 can make a people happy, our cup would indeed be full. But 

 it is not. I see everywhere a shadow. The bedimmcd and 

 brazen sunlight tells that the great orb is partially eclipsed. 

 Tlie burden of a great calamity has left its mark upon us; the 

 public joy written on our faces, cannot conceal the traces of 



