ADDRESS. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen : 



I would gladly have been excused from attempt- 

 ing" to bring a contribution to the exhibitions of 

 your Society, until such a time as I could offer some- 

 thing that was nearly ripened. There are, no doubt, 

 matured grains and delicious fruits, in the field in 

 which I am honored with the privilege of gathering ; 

 but having an unpractised eye, every thing there 

 seems to me unripe and unfit to set before this com- 

 pany. How can it be otherwise ? Only a little 

 more than two years ago, these hands had had no 

 acquaintance with the plough and the scythe since 

 the days of my boyhood. Up to the present hour, I 

 have never cultivated a rood of land that belonged to 

 myself, or in the productions of which I had any di- 

 rect pecuniary interest. 



Broken down in health by the confinement and 

 exhausting excitements of professional labors, the 

 quiet and the employments of the paternal farm were 

 resorted to as the most skilful physicians and efficient 



