82 [Assembly 



man, in first putting the share into mother Earth. A time honored 

 practice for the most distinguished citizen to lead in the field of Ag- 

 riculture, much more so tlian in those of battle. 



For the result of the contest of the plow we refer to the official 

 report of the committee in charge of that service. 



We next observed with pleasure, in a distant part of the field an 

 oblong square, formed by a triple row of men — some hundreds — 

 which reminded us of those human citadels found by Welhngton at 

 Waterloo, on which the elite of the breast-plated and helmeted 

 cuirassiers of Napoleon broke to pieces like the surges on a rocky 

 coast. We visited the square and being by virtue of office, admitted 

 ■within, we had the pleasure to see that great garden maker, the spade, 

 in the hands of athletic men, doing its capital work. During these 

 operations, the United States army band of music cheered the work 

 with their accurate, sweet, and yet blood-stirring notes from all the 

 chosen instruments of military music. To say that the men who 

 handled the plow and the spade felt the influence of the presence of 

 respectable fellow-citizens, that of the music or that of several fair 

 ladies, who from their carriages, were looking earnestly on, is not 

 saying enough. Find us if you can an honest man who under such a 

 respectful and cordial view does not feel his heart swell with a pure 

 and just pride and his etrong muscles thrill with lawful pleasure 



Who so indifferent to the approving smiles of his fellow men, but is 

 rendered happier and better by it, but if ladies too look on, his nerves 

 can have no greater tension in the power of his agricultural labors. 

 Take all this assembled multitude away and tell him he will never see 

 another American Institute, or a Queens County Society, or any body 

 else to look at him while he toils, and his spirit is instantly fallen and 

 by continued neglect will fall to the lowest possible point. To bring 

 men to battle, you have always been obliged to dress them gaily and 

 well, to erect plumes on their heads, polished hemlets, to give them 

 bright bayonets and polished swords, to stir them up by all the potent 

 sounds of clarion, drum, and trumpet, in order to make them do their 

 field work well ! And when they have done it well as they did at 

 Waterloo, perhaps it may be said that their bodies and their blood 



