NEW ENGLAND FARMING. 67 



above us, whose blessings areoifered with the bounty of nature, 

 to the highest and the lowest, who " by patient continuance in 

 well doing " deserve their reward. 



We have a right to be proud of New England farming so 

 long as this principle of freehold and this opportunity for small 

 farmers lie at its foundation. It is this which made our fathers 

 illustrious for their prudence, their energy and their success. 

 It is this which has enabled our people to retain their tenure of 

 the soil, while they have furnished the bone of their bone, the 

 flesh of their, flesh, for the advancement of society in all its 

 various enterprises. It is this which has preserved our farms 

 in their integrity, through a long season of necessary neglect, 

 and now offers them to a community already prepared to return 

 to the safe and peaceful pursuits of agriculture. And it is this 

 which will forever continue our farming community in that 

 substantial and commanding position maintained by those who 

 founded our institutions with pious care, and preserved them 

 through all trial with that heroism and devotion which are 

 characteristic of the rural population. 



But, gentlemen, this is not all. New England farming is no 

 trifling matter. That hardness of the soil which has deterred 

 so many from entering upon its cultivation, demands and 

 develops the most reliable worldly virtues. It is only by 

 economy, judgment, foresight, and diligence, that our farmers 

 can hope to succeed. The earth here has no spontaneous produc- 

 tions ready at any hour to fall into the lap of an indolent and 

 effeminate people. No hour, no day, no season, provides an 

 opportunity for idleness. Our people must be intelligent, 

 frugal, industrious, in order to preserve their very existence. 

 When you look abroad over the community you will find that 

 all our institutions of education and religion, our churches and 

 common schools, are but the response to an imperative demand 

 for intelligent Christian effort to preserve and elevate our social 

 organization, and to enable us to discharge our duties as heirs 

 of the faith and the farms of our fathers. We have sought for 

 well-educated labor and have found it ; and I can assure those 

 who have not yet learned the true position of our farming, that 

 no profession, no business on earth can boast of more industri- 

 ous thought than is at this day devoted to the work of advanc- 

 ing the science of agriculture in New England, and of giving 



