A D D K E S 3, 



45 



Fairs, like this we have witnessed on this occasion, are also a help 

 to the education of the husbandman. Not a man has come up hither, 

 but will carry hence some new idea that will affect his next year's 

 husbandry. Why should he not grow as fine stock and as fine fruit 

 as any that has been shown at this festival ? Has he not the same 

 soil, the same rain and sunshine ? If the knowing how is the only 

 thing lacking, will not any live Yankee stir himself to gain the secret 

 of large crops, of fine stock and fine fruits ? One of the great advan- 

 tages of these fairs is, that they show us what our neighbors have 

 been doing. There is too little intercourse among farmers, and these 

 occasions bring them together, not merely for holiday purposes, but 

 to learn something new in their art. 



Gentlemen of the Hampshire County Agricultural Society : I am 

 happy to have met you on this occasion, and to have had this oppor- 

 tunity to plead a cause of common interest, to your calling and to 

 mine. I have endeavored to point out the conner ion between scien- 

 tific agriculture and your pecuniary success — the welfare of society 

 and the prosperity of religion. Your cause is iden'tified with the 

 best interests of the state. A noble field of toil is open before you. 

 Go on in your work, until your influence is felt in every town and on 

 every farm, in the field of your toil ; until improved husbandry is the 

 motto of every farmer within your borders, and every waning parish 

 shall regain its lost wealth and influence. Let these homes of your 

 fathers — these nurseries of the' Puritan stockr— go down to your chil- 

 dren, adorned with the thrift and beauty of high cultivation. Let 

 each October, as it comes in the passing years, tinging the forests 

 with purple, gold, and crimson, find its own glorious hues rivalled in 

 the luscious fruits that crown your exhibitions. Let " the sere and 

 yellow leaf" of your own life find you amid these noble toils, and 

 your gathering to your fathers be within the dear old parish, and 

 tinder the shadow of the sanctuary your labors have resc-ued from 

 ruin and handed down to the future. 



