ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



Mr. President and Members of the Essex Agri- 

 cultural Society : — When I received the invitation of 

 your Board of Trustees to address you to-day, I found it 

 somewhat difficult to determine upon what subject I 

 should speak. Before giving the matter any serious con- 

 sideration, or even assuming that it was possible for me 

 to undertake such a service, I had learned that I should 

 not be confined to subjects specially connected with agri- 

 culture. Had it been otherwise, I should have unhesi- 

 tatingly declined to appear before you. 



Although I was born and bred on a farm, and until 

 sixteen years of age was familiar, as all New England 

 farmers' boys are, or ought to be, with the many duties 

 of such a position in life, I do not feel now that I am in 

 any important sense familiar with practical agriculture. 

 In my youth I saw enough of farming to show me, when 

 supplemented by my observation in later years, how com- 

 plicated and difficult a science it is when wisely con- 

 ducted. 



As has been said, all the knowledge we can acquire in 

 this life will serve only to direct us towards the immeas- 

 urable wisdom that will still be unexplored, so my little 

 knowledge of farming has served to impress me with a 

 lively sense of how much more there is in it that is to me 



