ADDRESS. 



GENTLEMEN. 



We have again assembled on this joyful festival, to present 

 the best of our flocks and herds, and the choicest productions of 

 the year ; and at the same time to raise a note of praise and 

 thanksgiving, from grateful hearts, to the Author of all our 

 blessings, for the good things he has done for us. We have not 

 come to celebrate the occasion of a splendid victory, or to mourn 

 over a signal defeat ; we have not come to pay a tribute to hu- 

 man greatness, or join in the strife of party ; but in the quiet 

 spirit of our profession, to animate one another to greater industry 

 and effort, in our peaceful and happy employment. 



Although you have been pleased to assign me a high rank 

 among the officers of your society, yet my professional engage- 

 ments have prevented me from acquiring that practical know- 

 ledge in agriculture, which would seem to belong to my office. 

 It is, therefore, with unusual embarrassment that I appear before 

 you upon this occasion, to speak on a subject, in relation to 

 which my own experience has been so limited. 



The profession in which I have been engaged, for many years, 

 has suffered under the unmerited reproach of uncertainty, till 

 the exclamation, " the glorious uncertainty of the law," has 

 become familiar. It is not, however, true that there is uncer- 

 tainty in law. Law is sufficiently certain, but the error lies in 



