Mr. President, and your associates, the Board of Trustees, 

 by your overt act, are partially accountable in selecting for 

 this duty, one who was taught to believe that he who by 

 the plough would thrive, must know how to both hold and 

 drive ; and more to this attainment and its multitudinous 

 associates have my energies been directed, rather than to 

 literature. 



The annual recurrence of this festive gathering has 

 assembled us together to exchange congratulations and 

 compare the results of another harvest. The season, 

 marked by many peculiar proclivities, has amply rewarded 

 our efforts in the abundance of its returns. And the 

 skeptics, whose faith was languishing by the experience of 

 the two preceding seasons, where the drought had been 

 oppressive, now rejoice in the super-abundance with which 

 their labors have been recompensed. And may we more 

 fully acknowledge the sublimity of the rulings of an All- 

 wise Providence whose marvellous hand is perceptible in all 

 the works of nature, with which the farmer is brought in 

 contact. 



May this occasion be fraught with pleasant remembrances, 

 as we recognize the familiar countenances of so many who 

 have labored unremittingly for the welfare of this society, 

 and as we meet to-day to celebrate the anniversary of this 

 time honored gathering of our ancestors, may we commem- 

 orate to their memory by our deeds, our earnest apprecia- 

 tion of their endeavors to establish a society which for 



upwards of three score years has been spreading its bene- 

 ficent influence on a circle not confined to our county 

 limits, nor to the farmer's quiet abode, but exerting an 

 ascendant power towards improving the condition and 



