4 MR. SALTONSTALL S ADDRESS. 



Many farmers in this ancient county were contentedly 

 going on in the old paths, in which their Fathers had 

 gone before them. From generation to generation they 

 had cultivated the earth in a certain mode, and little im- 

 provement, or indeed change had been made. Their 

 Fathers had prospered without the aid of agricultural 

 associations, and why should they meet together, to ex- 

 hibit the produce of their farms, and to communicate to 

 each other the results of their experience ? Their 

 fathers had learned to cultivate the soil without reading 

 agricultural journals, and why should they resort to 

 books for instruction on this practical subject ? Agricul- 

 ture was deemed a mere imitative art, not to be improved 

 by scientific researches. These prejudices have passed 

 away. No one now opposes or attempts to cast ridicule 

 on these associations, which are spreading over our 

 broad land, and whose good effects are seen in improved 

 cultivation, not only in our own blessed New England, 

 but in the States of the far West — and their light has 

 broken in upon those less favored regions, where labor 

 is not held in that honorable estimation which it must 

 enjoy, before a community can be truly prosperous. 



We live emphatically in an age of Association. Men 

 had before formed joint-stock companies for the ac- 

 complishment of objects beyond the reach of individual 

 enterprize — they had gathered into societies for reli- 

 gious, benevolent, and literary purposes ; but it was 

 reserved for our day to discover that this great ele- 

 ment of man's power, combined effort, is the lever, which 

 is to move the world. We see it developed and applied 

 in every form, which ingenuity can suggest, and for the 

 promotion of every object beneath the sun. It may 

 well be doubted whether the inliuence of this combined 

 action on individual opinion and character is always 

 salutary. I know that no one is bound to join, or to 

 give a reason (or not joining an association on compul- 

 sion — but still, popular opinion, not always enlightened 

 or well regulated, may be brought to bear upon men 

 with such force, as to deprive them of their freedom of 

 choice, and they may fall into the ranks of a society 



