28 



CONCLUSION. 



Farmers of Essex county ! I have now finished tlic worlc 

 you gave me to do. Ivapidly I have run over the pomts most 

 prominent in presenting, as best I might, the E-ehitions of 

 Agriculture to Man. I have attempted to show its worth, its 

 freedom, its intelHgence, its dignity, and its purity. I have 

 not given you one word of advice ; but impressed as I am with 

 the absolute independence of the farmer, I will not close with-, 

 out urging all whom my voice or words can reach, to stay upon 

 their farms. The tendency of late years has been to rush to 

 the cities, deluded, as the young men and maidens have been, 

 by false ideas of ease, and wealth and pleasures. To all such 

 I repeat my words — stay at home ; at home, where your fathers 

 lived, and where their graves are even unto our day; at home, 

 where you were born and your earliest loves were cher- 

 ished ; at home, amid the scenes upon which your childhood 

 gazed in gladness, and where, in the most distant land to which 

 you may wander, you will at last wish to lie down and die. If 

 you want wealth, seek it there. Agriculture may be a slow 

 mode, but it is sure. California' with its mines of gold, and 

 Nevada with its soil cropping out with silver, do not enrich so 

 many relatively as do the bleak hills of New Hampshire, the 

 sheep pastures of Vermont, and the deep forests of Maine. 

 The few succeed, the many perish. Be ye not deceived either, 

 in the great gains of successful merchants and manufacturers ; 

 men like the Lawrences, Astors, and Girards, who own facto- 

 ries, and ships, and houses, and stocks — whose stores, filled 

 with goods, amaze us ; whose palatial palaces delight our eyes, 

 and whose generosity sometimes surprises the world. Remem- 

 ber that where there is one millionaire, one merchant prince, 

 there are scores who are prematurely old with hard labor and 

 excessive cares, while all their hopes have fled through the 

 courts of bankruptcy. The few, who loom up in the distance, 

 are as beacons upon a dangerous coast everywhere strewn with 

 wrecks. You deceive yourselves, too, if you dream of more 



