554 [AsSF.MBLt 



For what, rtien) are we assembled in these fields to-day? Here we 

 5Beet the intelligent, the influential; the producer and the consumer; 

 men of business and men of leisure, and withal the enviable prac- 

 tical farmer. We meet as the component parts of civilized society, 

 «ach having a separate interest to preserve) and all entertaining the 

 ■desire to promote harmony and fellowship, for the advancement of 

 the general welfare. We meet as the advocates of peace, willing 

 that our swords may be beaten into ploughshares^ and that our ene- 

 mies may receive the staff of life. 



It is not then the jubilee of a military conquest, it is not the des- 

 potism of sanguinary rulers, nor the fears of famine, nor the attrac» 

 tions of eloquence, nor the revenge of mere brutal passions, which 

 summon us now to the fields; but rather to cherish the emblems of 

 peace and civilization, to drink at the fountain of pure health, to 

 respect the in\ eterate foes of want and famine, and to lend a helping 

 hand to those silent advocates of American industry and universal 

 happiness — the plough, the spade, and the harrow. And if we find 

 ourselves in musing •contemplation of these uncouth misshapen mon- 

 asters, we must appreciate them as the terrors of savage ignorance, 

 and the foes of poverty and sterility. 



It is such a jubilee we this day commemorate; we come to appre- 

 ciate the first best gifts the ingenuity of man has yet produced, and 

 to promote their use in every arable spot in our boundless country, 

 and to aid in their transmission from generation to generation. 



Of the early history of the plough we find no distinct record; it 

 however appears to have been in use among the Egyptians prior to 

 the Christian era. The laws of Moses forbid ploughing with an ox 

 and an ass together. The Romans used two kinds of ploughs, one 

 for strong and the other for light soils; they were constructed with 

 and without mould-boards, with and without coulters and wheels; 

 with broad and narrow pointed shares, with sharp sides and points, 

 and with high raised cutting tops. 



In the Greek monuments of antiquity are several examples of 

 wheel ploughs. 



A curious picture of a ploughman is found in a work entitled "Sax- 

 on Rarities of the Eighth Century." A book of husbandry published 

 by Sir A Fitzherbert in the time of Henry VIL recommends the far- 

 mer's wife to "make clothes for her husband and herself, and she may 



