ADDRESS. 



BY JAMES B. NICHOLS 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Essex Agricultural 

 Society : — 



How full of interest to the husbandman is the succession of the 

 seasons. Another of the brief hours of vegetable life, which come 

 and go with us so rapidly, is drawing to a close, and once again 

 the mighty force of plant vitality begins to waver, and its great an- 

 tagonist and ultimate destroyer, approaches the outer lines of its 

 varied and stupendous works. The terrible blight of chemical 

 force, with its teeth of oxygen, more destructive than ten thousand 

 swarms of locusts, or all the hungry insects that bask in summer 

 sunlight, is already seen upon the forest leaf and in the tender 

 herbage of the field. Its withering touch is seen in the blended 

 white and yellow with the fading green, and in the bleached and 

 dusty stubble of the cereal grains and tuber plants. But you, 

 gentlemen, are not overtaken unawares. You have anticipated the 

 work of the great destroyer. You are almost ready to bid him 

 welcome to your fields, so recently laden with their precious bur- 

 dens. The pleasant duties of autumn harvest time have not been 

 neglected, and you have already gathered in many of the seeds and 

 fruits, and placed them beyond his reach. 



And now what more pleasant duty could open before you, than 

 to convene as you have to-day, to consult together respecting the 

 glorious art of husbandry, to be stimulated by the success of 

 neighbors, to interchange opinions, and t5 impart and obtain fuller 

 knowledge respecting your vocation, in all its varied aspects. 



