ADDRKSS. 6 



bring her a larger revenue of glory, and secure for her a more envia- 

 ble renown, than that which immortalized the Coesars, Alexanders and 

 Pharaohs of the world. 



The improvement of the present age has so accelerated the action 

 of society, that more business is now transacted in a single year, than 

 was performed during the whole antediluvian period. For all the 

 purposes of useful and benevolent action, a man of the present gen- 

 eration at fifty years of age, is older than any of the Patriarchs, 

 For instance, what astonishing improvements have been made in 

 manufactures, in the art of printing, in electro- magnetism, and in the 

 application of steam to the great industrial pursuits of man. Tiiis 

 subtile agent already drives our cars over the ten thousand miles of 

 Kail Road, and when present contracts are completed, will compass 

 ten thousand more. Despite wind and wave, storm and tide, it pro- 

 pels the thousands of steamboats which plough our navigable waters. 

 It turns the machinery of the world. It gives new direction to ener- 

 gy and capital, brings distant places into proximity, and unites them 

 together by bonds which no party animosity, no sectional prejudice, 

 no vandal barbarity can ever sunder. 



But in this progress of improvement, have our farmers moved 

 " parri passu" with those engaged in other departments of industry? 



If Agriculture has not advanced propoxtionally with other pur- 

 suits, the reason is evident. Science has but lately come to her aid, 

 while she has long been laboring for the improvement of other arts ; 

 and in many instances, with most remarkable success. But we re- 

 joice that her light begins to shine into the deep recesses of the earth, 

 to reveal treasures hitherto undiscovered and to awaken sanguine hopes 

 of future progress. These are stengthened by the valuable discover- 

 ies which she has already made, by the chemical analysis of soils, by 

 prescriptions adapted to supply their deficient constituents, and by 

 improvements in agricultural implements. 



In the latter, witness the wonderful perfection to which mechanics 

 have already brought the modern plough, the horse rake, the thresh- 

 ing machine, and other implements, the importance of which to the 

 farmer cannot be overrated. What American does not feel a gener- 

 ous pride at the success with which many of these implements have 

 been crowned at the general competition of the World's Fair ? Es- 

 pecially in the triumph of our Plough and Reaping machines, dis- 

 tancing all competition, and turning even the ridicule of European 



