8 MR. gage's address. 



culture. The object of your association, gentlemen, 

 is unmingled good. In every light in which agricul- 

 ture can be viewed, it claims respect. It was to a 

 branch of this occupation that our common Father 

 was devoted, when fresh from the forming hand of 

 the Creator. It was the prominent pursuit of men in 

 the golden age — days of which we read as adorned 

 with simplicity and innocence. And, within the lim- 

 its of authentic history, we find, among nations most 

 eminent for whatever was great and honorable, this 

 mode of life held in special and deserved respect. 



" In ancient times, the sacred ])loug]i employed 

 Tlie Kings and aAvful fathers of mankind." 



' It is,' says a distinguished author, ' the subservi- 

 ency of agriculture to the wants of mankind, connect- 

 ed with its sober and healthful pleasures and the spi- 

 rit of independence, which it fosters, that has secur- 

 ed to it, in every age, the first rank among the useful 

 arts ; and obtained for it, in every country, the patron- 

 age of those most eminent for wisdom and virtue. 

 The honors paid to it, in China, take their date from 

 the remotest antiquity ; and through the purer ages 

 of the Roman Republic, it was held in the highest 

 estimation. In England, the name of a Russel, so 

 proudly distinguished in her annals, stands pre-emi- 

 nent among those who have patronized this noble art. 

 And the great founder of American liberty, when the 

 toils and dangers of warfare were ended, retired to 

 the cultivation of that soil, which his valor and his 

 virtues, had rendered free.'* And all classes, in so- 



* Reviewer of Sir H. Davy on Agricultural Chemistry. 



