ence, which is new, I should answer — nothing. And my 

 theme may well be called " Nothing New, " 



It seems to me that you can consider no subject to-day of 

 more importance than to know how the interest of the people 

 of this county in this Society, formed under such glorious 

 auspices, can be heightened, and increased, and extended, 

 livery farmer in the County of Norfolk should be as enthusi- 

 astic in its continuance and support to-day as they were who 

 established it. There may be town societies, or smaller dis- 

 trict societies, but these should be subsidiary to, and branches 

 of, this Society, as county societies are parts of State societies, 

 as State societies are tributary to the New England Society, 

 or to a National Society. It is a local interest we need. 



We need not fear that the human race will ever cease to 

 have a delight in the cultivation of land, — the raising of grain 

 and fruits, — in planting trees. Men always did delight in the 

 pleasures of agriculture. It has been the chosen pursuit of 

 the ablest and wisest. men in all ages. The pleasures of the 

 husbandman have been the theme of poets and orators in 

 every language and in every land. These pleasures, Cicero 

 tells us, are not checked by any old age, and make the nearest 

 approach to the life of a wise man. And he tells us that Ho- 

 mer introduces Laertes, soothing the regret which he felt for 

 his son, by tilling the land and manuring it, 



Marcus Curius, after he had triumphed over the Samnites, 

 over the Sabines, over Pyrrhus, spent the closing period of his 

 existence in agricultural pursuits. 



Cincinnatus was at the plow when it was announced to him 

 that he was made Dictator. 



" God Almighty, " says Lord Bacon, " first planted a garden ; 

 and indeed it is the purest of pleasures ; it is the greatest re- 

 freshment to the spirits of man, without which buildings and 

 palaces are but gross handiworks, " 



Addison says a garden was the habitation of our first par- 

 ents before the fall. It is naturally apt to fill the mind with 

 calmness and tranquility, and to lay all its turbulent passions 

 at rest. 



