ADDRESS, 



BY GEORGE J. L. COLBY, ESQ., OF NEWBURYPORT. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Society: 



To most of you this is no ordinary occasion ; it is one 

 to which you look forward during the year as a day of plea- 

 sure and profit. On my part, I deem it a privilege to address 

 you, as it is an honor to follow the wise, the eloquent, and the 

 good men, who since the formation of your Society, more than 

 forty years ago, have been called to perform the same service. 

 Perhaps no agricultural association — national. State or county 

 — can present a list of more distinguished orators; and yet 

 you have never gone beyond the limits of the county for your 

 annual addresses, proving thereby that this little seaside county 

 is not less productive of mind than of the fruits of the field. 

 Among those speakers have been statesmen, like Timothy 

 Pickering, Leverett Saltonstall, and Caleb Gushing ; lawyersj 

 like Mosely and Duncan, Huntington and Abbott ; clergymen, 

 like Perry, of Groveland, Withington, of Newbury, Colman> 

 of Salem, and Braman, of Danvers ; physicians, like Spofford 

 and Nichols and Kelly; practical farmers, like Newell, and 

 Newhall, Daniel P. King, and George B. Loring ; and with 

 these have been many others of influence and character and 



