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land was a prodigy of agricultural wealth. Flanders 

 might possibly surpass it. He had not seen Flan- 

 ders ; but England quite surpassed, in this respect, 

 whatever he had seen. In associations for the im- 

 provement of agriculture, we had been earlier than 

 England. But such associations now exist. He had 

 the pleasure of attending the first meeting of the 

 National Agricultural Society, and he had found it a 

 very pleasant and interesting occasion. Persons of 

 the highest distinction for rank, talents, and wealth, 

 were present, all zealously engaged in efforts for the 

 promotion of the agricultural interests. No man in 

 England was so high, as to be independent of the 

 success of this great interest; no man so low, as not 

 to be affected by its prosperity, or its decline. The 

 same is true, eminently and emphatically true, with 

 us. Agriculture feeds us ; to a great degree it 

 clothes us ; without it, we could not have manufac- 

 tures, and we should not have commerce. These all 

 stand together, but they stand together, like pillars in 

 a cluster, the largest in the centre, and that largest is 

 agriculture. Let us remember, too, that we live in a 

 country of small farms, and free-hold tenements ; a 

 country, in which men cultivate with their own 

 hands, their own fee-simple acres ; drawing not only 

 their subsistence, but also their spirit of independ- 

 ence, and manly freedom from the ground they 

 plough. They are at once its owners, its cultivators, 

 and its defenders. And whatever else may be under- 

 valued, or overlooked, let us never forget, that the 

 cultivation of the earth is the most important labor 

 of man. Man may be civilized, in some degree, 



