ADDRESS, 



BY REV. GEORGE PUTNAM, I).D. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 



Having too early in life exchanged the blue frock for one of 

 another color, I do not consider myself, and nobody else will con- 

 sider me, competent to give valuable instruction on the science 

 or the practice of Agriculture. I will not attempt it. But 

 though I know little about farming, in its latest and best methods, 

 I think I do know a good deal about the farmer. Therefore I 

 will not speak of tillage, but of the tiller ; not of cattle and swine, 

 but their owner ; not of land, but the land's lord. We will in- 

 quire, not how a man does or should cultivate his fields, but how 

 his fields do and should cultivate him. For it is the case, in any 

 business, that while the man makes the business what it is, the 

 business in turn makes the man, in a great degree, what he is. 

 He directs and moulds that visibly, and that invisibly but as truly 

 directs and moulds him. He puts the mark of his mind and char- 

 acter upon that, and that puts its mark upon his mind and char- 

 acter. The influences are reciprocal. Action and reaction are 

 equal. 



Farmers are of two classes. The two classes run into each 

 other at the edges, yet are quite distinguishable. 



One of the classes consists of persons, not originally, or not ex- 

 clusively agricultural. They come from other walks of life, from 

 the manufactory, from the counting-house, from the sea, from the 

 professions. Perhaps they have prospered sufficiently, and now 

 only wish to enjoy their gains. Perhaps they have got disgusted 

 with some of the ways of that more excited and adventui-ous 



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