6 ADDRESS. 



forward to the time when those murderous instruments, as well as 

 swords, shall be beaten into ploughshares; and in the glorious 

 words of Holy Writ the lion shall lie down with%e lamb. 



These questions, 1 shall only propound to you to-day. Stand- 

 ing here as I do, Mr. President, after your Lorings and Butlel-s 

 have declined to address you, I, too, with no time to do this 

 great subject justice, can only appeal to thought, reason and truth, 

 the workings of which, though quiet, are sure. 



The thunder and the storm can leave behind them the blasted and 

 shivered oak ; but still reflection, with good common sense is like 

 the noiseless dews and sunlight upon your golden crops of grain. 



Why are we cultivating less and less land every year ? Why 

 such decadence and decline in keeping up farms ? Why in this 

 district, do we find such quantities of land going to waste ; with 

 the very stone walls, which formerly enclosed mowing lands and 

 pasturage, obscured by scrub oak and alders ? Why are we com- 

 pelled to gaze upon so many dilapidated or deserted dwelling 

 houses, or tumbling cellar walls, where once was the happy abode 

 of some independent yeoman ? 



The same inquiry is pertinent to all New England. Vermont, 

 for instance, whose mountains are verdant to their very crests, and 

 whose vallies are bounded by some of the loveliest rivers and lakes 

 on the globe ; for where can you find anything superior to the riv- 

 er bottoms of the Connecticut, Passumsicand Otter rivers, or Lake 

 Champlain, yet Vermont, perhaps the gem of all the New England 

 States, has lost farming population the last decade. And this, 

 though the soil for all purposes of the farm, excells that of Great Brit- 

 ain and Belgium, less of course, their scientific culture and manures. 



With our agricultural colleges and societies all around — with 

 rewards or premiums offered for the best farms and crops ; do the 

 people get an adequate return for the money expended for these 

 objects ? 



Take, if you please, our own Worcester North District. I ad- 

 mit the full benefit of our social meetings, but I am talking about the 

 farm. We owe much to such men as Lyman Nicliols, Doctor J. 

 Fisher of Fitchburg, Augustus Whitman, E. T. Miles and Solon 

 Carter of Leominster, and men like them in enterprise, in every 

 other town of the district, for their improvements in breeds of an- 

 imals, agriculture and horticulture. 



There are many such cases in the district, but are they not al- 

 together too exceptional ? Are we keeping pace, I repeat again, 

 with other pursuits, or dwindling down, in many cases, to little 



