JOHN C. GRAY'S ADDRESS. 203 



a Text Book on Agriculture, than any with which I am ac- 

 quainted. 



We know, that scarcely ever will a taste of any kind de- 

 velop itself in the human mind, unless its seeds are sown there 

 in early youth, and how many of our most able and accom- 

 plished young men might become the votaries or friends of agri- 

 culture, or horticulture, were their attention called to these sub- 

 jects at a season when the intellect is awake to every object, 

 and the feelings susceptible to every impression. 



This is a proper occasion to pay the tribute of a passing notice 

 to the memory of some of those distinguished men, who, for a 

 long period, proved themselves most enlightened and constant 

 friends of agriculture, by their example and their writings, and 

 who have been, for years, removed beyond the reach of human 

 applause. It is unquestionably to the influence exerted by such 

 men, that our agriculture is greatly indebted for its present ad- 

 vanced condition, and this probably to a degree far higher than 

 can be estimated ; for what earthly sagacity can trace or limit 

 the action of truth, when once cast abroad by a powerful and 

 eloquent mind, into the great world of intellect. Of these de- 

 parted friends to this great interest, I have room to speak only 

 of very few of the most distinguished. 



Washington gave abundant proof, in his life and writings, of 

 his deep and abiding interest in the cultivation of the soil, his 

 comprehensive views of the agricultural resources of our coun- 

 try, and his sagacious foresight in pointing out the internal com- 

 munications which would best call those resources into full and 

 vigorous action. There is equal evidence, that his example, 

 as a farmer, was in keeping, in every way, with his course, in 

 all those high spheres of action, to which, for our best good, as 

 well as for his own undying memory, it was the pleasure of 

 Providence to call him. The vigilance, the comprehensiveness 

 of plan, yet exactness of detail, the mixture of energy and cau- 

 tion, of reflection and activity, by which he was so singularly 

 marked in his public conduct, were as strikingly and constantly 

 displayed in his agricultural operations. Had he written at 

 large upon agriculture, there is no reason to doubt, that he would 

 have displayed the vigor of thought, and the simplicity, perspi- 



