s 



During (lie Twentieth Annual Fair at the Plowinoj Match, at Har!esi» 

 on the 15fh day of October, 1847. 



BY H. C. WESTERVELT, ESQ., Of NEWYOaK. 



Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen,-^ 



On that bright and beautiful morning far, far back in the calendar 

 of time, when chaos was restored to order, and the heavens and the 

 earth were finished, and man became a living soul, we may fancy 

 that we hear the mandate as it descended from on high — "Let the 

 earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree 

 yielding fruit after his kind," and while we recognize man placed in 

 the garden "eastward in Eden, to dress it and to keep it," we may 

 sensibly appreciate the higest perfection of human enjoyment; but 

 when the golden gates of Paradise were closed upon the origin* 

 al transgressors, and man in his fallen nature had incurred the direct 

 vengeance of the Omnipotent in that unalterable decree, "Cursed be 

 the ground for thy sake; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou 

 eat bread all the days of thy life," yet when we look abroad upon 

 the cultivated landscape of the globe, and discover that the greatest 

 happiness of our race claims an association with the improvement of 

 the soil, we are intuitively lead to reflect that much of the severity 

 of the decree has been revoked, and that while much has been award-' 

 ed to us for our benefit, much for the advancement of our reason, we 

 are stimulated to renew our industry, to awaken our gratitude, to 

 speed the plough, and to think lightly of our burthen. 



If it should claim no other consideration. Agriculture is at least 

 venerable for its antiquity; it is co-existent with the dawn of time; 

 it has lasted through the brilliant noon of ages, and it has continued 

 to sustain the husbandman of the vineyard, "since the everting and 

 the morning were the sixth day." 



