MR. STONE'S ADDRESS, 



Gentlemen : 



You are met, on this 28th anniversary of the Essex Agricul- 

 tural Society, to exhibit the results of your toil and skill, and 

 to lay before each other, for mutual benefit, your individual ex- 

 perience. This " Farmer's Jubilee " is a proud and beautiful 

 spectacle — a day of extended and extending interest in this 

 county. Prompted by a laudable desire to advance the pros- 

 perity of your calling, you are thus come together. In these 

 becoming exercises, — and as the friends of order, virtue and re- 

 ligion, — you gratefully acknowledge the benignant Providence, 

 and implore the continued smiles of him, " who crowneth the 

 year with his goodness," and without Avhose blessing all pros- 

 perity is a curse ; while, by fraternal intercourse, you impart 

 and receive influences that perpetuate good will, strengthen the 

 ties of the civil and social compact, and make "a fair day in 

 the affections, from the storm and tempest." Nor is it the 

 least gratifying circumstance of the occasion, that we greet so 

 numerous a representation of the gentler sex, without whose 

 presence Paradise itself had been a cheerless home for man, and 

 the rich harvest fields of Boaz had failed to satisfy their own- 

 er. It were time well spent in celebrating this anniversary, 

 were it but to weave this garland of Essex's fairest flowers, — 

 to chasten and dignify our festive enjoyments by the charms 

 and restraints of woman, — and to find, as we do to-day, in 

 the specimens of feminine industry, invention and taste, incen- 

 tives to our own. 



Honored with an invitation to address you, I stand here, not. 



