brief a study, little more than to catch something of the spirit 

 required alike by the subject and the occasion. To this end 

 I took up the history of agriculture as recorded in our State 

 Reports, and especially in the published transactions of this 

 society. 



Distance and absence, rather than wairt of interest, had 

 prevented me from keeping along, as you have done, with this 

 valuable series of annual issues, — so that the great mass of 

 facts and opinions, preserved therein, had, for me, to a certain 

 extent, the freshness of novelty. In reference to such a re- 

 view, my comparative ignorance, was, perhaps, rather advan- 

 tageous — since it left me free from those prepossessions — 

 favorable or unfavorable — which are apt to bias the judgment. 

 I ask your indulgence, while I glance, for a moment, at the 

 record of our own society. 



This association was founded, as you know, in 1817. A 

 sensible address by Mr. Pickering was read to the society 

 in 1818 — its author being unavoidably absent. In February, 

 1820, Mr. Pickering again addressed the society, in a dis- 

 course full of practical information and advice. On the fifth 

 of October in that year the society held, in my native town, 

 its first »cattle-show, and perfectly do I still recall the tall and 

 venerable form of its first President, as I saw him holding his 

 own plough in the competitive trial of that occasion. It was, 

 indeed, a memorable example. Many years before that day 

 the name of Timothy Pickering had been written bright and 

 high on the temple of our national fame. And now, in that 

 hardy, vigorous old lloman, we saw one, who had been a dis- 

 tinguished patriot and warrior of the Revolution — an illus- 

 trious founder and administrator of the Republic — a senator 

 and statesman — and, better than all, the counsellor and 

 friend of Washington. Having, not long before, retired from 

 the public service, he was living, a hard-working farmer, on 

 his own ground near Wenham Pond. To this employment he 

 brought judgment and skill, and the matured wisdom of long 

 and varied observation. His devotion to asrriculture was not 



