74 



stand, in the judgment of competent persons, is one of the best ever held 

 by the Society. 



" By the terms of our Constitution, my official duties will close with the 

 prseent year. Having held the office of President since the organization of 

 the Society, sixteen years, I have not the presumption to believe that I ought 

 to occupy the chair for a longer time to the exclusion of others equally well 

 qualified for the duties of the office. For several years I have accepted 

 the office at the earnest solicitation of friends, and in the hope that I might 

 extend the influence and increase the utility of the Society. To you, my 

 fellow-associates, who have shared with me the discharge of official duty, 

 and to every member of the Society, and especially to the ladies, I tender 

 my heartfelt and grateful acknowledgments for the countenance and support 

 given to my administration. 



" The intelligence and zeal evinced by the founders of the Society were 

 sure precursors of success and prosperity. And who can forget tlie bril- 

 liancy of the assembly on the first E"xhibition of the Society '? On that 

 occasion we were honored by the presence of Daniel Webster, Edward 

 Evei'ett, Hoi-ace Mann, Charles Francis Adams, the elder and junior 

 Quincy, Robert C. Winthrop, Governors Briggs, Lincoln, Reed, Hill, and 

 many other distinguished guests. May the future success of this Society 

 equal their fondest anticipations ! It cannot possibly exceed my own de- 

 sires for its prosperity. 



" If the Society has not accomplished all that was anticipated, it surely 

 has been the means of developing the resources of our county, and exciting 

 a spirit of emulation in the establishment of new Societies in our Common- 

 wealth. The Norfolk Society was the first to purchase lands and erect a 

 Hall for its accommodation — a practice now generally adopted. From 

 this Society emanated the establishment of the Massachusetts Board of 

 Agriculture. From this Society proceeded the first general efforts for the 

 advancement of agricultural education, and the establishment of the Mas- 

 sachusetts Agricultural College, and with diffidence may I not also add, 

 from the same source originated the idea of the United States Agricultural 

 Society — an institution which, until the breaking out of the late rebellion, 

 was exerting a most happy influence on the agricultural and political con- 

 dition of our country. 



" When I last addressed you, a dark cloud overshadowed the horizon of 

 our beloved country, but, thanks to a merciful Providence, it is retiring, 

 gilded with the bow of promise, and radiant with the hopes of a faii-er 

 and brighter to-moiTow. Terrible as this crisis has been, we doubt not 

 that the progress of our beloved country is onward and upward in all that 

 tends to the development of 'freedom, civilization and human happiness, 

 when our fields shall no longer be plowed with the deadly cannon, or fer- 

 tilized with the blood of our brethren. 



" And now that secession and slavery are dead, and the bonds of our 

 glox'ious Union cemented with fire and blood, and consecrated with incense 



