ADDRESS. 



Mr. President ; and Gentlemen of the Agricultural Society ; 



I am not Insensible to the honor of your appointment on 

 this occasion. I should not, however, have undertaken this du- 

 ty, but fi"om the consideration that every man is bound to render 

 any practicable service, which the community demands of him. 

 You do not expect an oration. Agriculture has little concern 

 with rhetorical flourishes. Detemiined principles, plain matters 

 of fact, and the results of well conducted experiments are most 

 useild. These will be the subjects of my address. 



I. The first object of a farmer should be to produce as much 

 as he can. We are not speaking of mere amateur-farmers, who 

 do not need the products of a fami as a means of subsistence 

 or profit ; and who are at liberty to farm as much or as little as 

 they please ; nor of your mongrel farmers, a sort of " jack-at- 

 all-trades," who farm a little, and trade a little, and manufacture 

 a little, and jockey a good deal ; but of those husbandmen, 

 whose whole dependance is on their farms for their own and the 

 support and comfort of their families. The object of such farm- 

 ers should be to produce from their farms as much as they can, 

 and of that which is most needed or most profitable. We lay 

 this down as a great principle, and shall presently come to the 

 qualifications which belong to it. Every man should obtain 

 from his farm all that he can. Tliis will require labor and care ; 

 but the necessity of labor and care, where they are not exces- 

 sive, is a blessing, not an evil. Occupation is enjoyment. Idle- 

 ness is always hazardous to vhtue, and renders a man a nuisance 

 to his neighborhood. There is a satisfaction in a farmer's gains 

 not to be found in many of the occupations of life. The in- 

 crease of his products impoverishes no other man ; but confers 

 a benefit upon the community by extending the means of hu- 

 man subsistence, rendering the land which he cultivates more 



