ADDRESS 



Delivered at the Ploughing and Spading Matches at White Plains, 

 Westchester Co., N. Y., Oct. 5, 1848. 



By Robert Bolton Jr., (the historian of Westchester County.) 



Mr. President — 



The American Institute of New-York, with the laudable design of 

 advancing the agricultural interests of this county, have appointed 

 their Annual Ploughing and Spading Matches to be held here this 

 day, in connection with the Fourth Annual Fair of the Society of 

 Agriculture and Horticulture of Westchester County. They have al- 

 so honored the speaker with the pleasant task of delivering to you 

 their views in relation to the great subject of Agriculture. 



The inoportance of husbandry to all the substantial interests of the 

 human race is so fully recognized that it is almost unnecessary for 

 me to enlarge on the attention to which it is entitled, or to insist on 

 the great advantages which those nations enjoy, by whom it is most 

 successfully practiced. Some of the greatest minds the world ever 

 produced, have assigned to Agriculture a superiority over every other 

 art, and a pre-eminence over every other mechanical trade; while it 

 has been seen that individuals, even cf elevated rank, may engage 

 in the cultivation of the soil without descending from their high sta- 

 tion. 



Such was the opinion of the illustrious Washington — an opinion 

 among the very last communicated to his fellow-countryman — that 

 "agriculture is the most healthful, the most useful, and the most no- 

 ble employment of man." 



It has been well observed, that "that great man knew, and all 

 great men know, that the cultivation of the earth is our very first and 

 most delightful duty. That Paradise lost by transgression can only 

 be regained here on eaith by the sweat of the brow, in clearing away 



