MR. gage's address. d 



ciety should rejoice in every effort, like yours, gentle- 

 men, to bring this eminently important pursuit into 

 greater favor. We see, in such efforts, auspices 

 which should gladden every patriotic heart. It cer- 

 tainly argues wrong somewhere, that a branch of 

 business, of such paramount importance to every or- 

 der of the community, should have been permitted so 

 far to languish as to render us, in no small degree, 

 dependent for our bread upon the South and West, 

 and even upon Europe. In the elaborate and excel- 

 lent address* delivered before you, on your last Anni- 

 versary, the orator, after glancing at the decline of 

 interest in agriculture, among a portion of the com- 

 munity, and the readiness with which they entrust 

 themselves to the current of hazardous enterprises and 

 speculations, observed : " the present state of things 

 can hardly be of long continuance." How soon was 

 that prediction fulfilled ! The tide has already turned. 

 Many, who seemed to have forgotten that the pro- 

 ductions of agriculture are the support of man, would 

 now look upon the possession of a good farm as al- 

 most an earthly paradise. Agriculture is now the 

 chief hope of this nation. Its productions are looked 

 to, as the means of wiping off our foreign debt ; and 

 of giving an impulse to the first wave, in that tide of 

 future active prosperity, for which all hearts are so 

 anxiously waiting. 



The condition of the farmer, among you, is as de- 

 sirable, or more so, indeed, than in any other portion 

 of the world. You possess a high advantage over the 



* By N. W. Hazen, Esq. 



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