138 
TIIE CULTIVATOR. 
considered as resting with the committee, by whom the wish had been 
expressed. 
The Gov. added, that he felt additional embarrassment in following 
the orator, who in his very able and interesting discourse, had antici- 
pated many of the general remarks appropriate to such an occasion. 
His only effort could now be, to subjoin a few observations, so simple 
as to present themselves without research, and he hoped important 
enough to bear a repetition, should it happen, as was very probable, 
that they had been already made by the orator of the day. 
After some remarks on the nature and objects of cattle-shows, and 
their beneficial influence on the state of the husbandry of this part of 
the country, Governor Everett proceeded substantially as follows: 
The benefit which has accrued to our farmers from these exhibitions ] 
cannot be estimated in dollars and cents, or measured by the figures 
employed to state an increase of agricultural products. A few more 
tons of hay from your meadows: a few more bushels of corn or po¬ 
tatoes from your tilled lands; a better stock of animals for the 
dairy, the fold, or the pen, would add something, it is true, to the 
public and private wealth of the community; but if nothing farther 
came of it, it would be a matter, in which neither the patriot nor the 
Christian could take a deep interest. 
But when we consider, that the class of husbandmen is numerically 
the largest in the community; and that in their condition it has been 
found, in the experience of the whole world, that the social, political, 
and moral characters of countries mainly depends, it follows as self- 
evident, that whatever improves the situation of the farmer, feeds the 
life-springs of the national character. In proportion as our husband¬ 
men prosper, they not only enjoy themselves a larger portion of the 
blessings of life, but society is kept in a healthy state, and they are 
enabled to make ampler provisions for the education and establishment 
of their children, and thus leave behind them a posterity competent not 
only to preserve and assert, but to augment their heritage! 
It will accordingly be found, that the great differences in the politi¬ 
cal condition of different countries coincide directly with the different 
tenures on which the land is held and cultivated. It is not that in one 
country the government is administered by an elective president; in 
another by a limited monarch; in another by an absolute despot. These 
things are not unimportant; because forms have a tendency to draw 
the substance after them. But a far more important question, in de¬ 
ciding the political condition of different countries is, how is the land 
held? The orator has told us what is the case in many parts of Eu¬ 
rope ; but there are countries, where the land,—the whole of it,—is 
claimed to be the property of an absolute despot, rather a chief of bri¬ 
gands than a sovereign,—who once or twice a year sends out his armed 
hordes to scour the territory: to sweep together, without the shadow 
of law or pretence of right, whatever they can lay their hands on; 
leaving the wretched peasant little else than what he actually grasps 
with his teeth. Such is the system introduced into some parts of Hin- 
dostan by their Mahometan conquerors, and it has had the effect of break¬ 
ing down the civilization of countries once refined, learned, wealthy, and 
prosperous, into a condition very little better than that of the North 
American savage. Contrast this with the system on which our lands 
are held and occupied, in pursuance of which, as a general rule, it is 
divided into small farms, the property of those who till them, who have 
every inducement and facility to better their condition, and who feel 
themselves on an equality with their fellow citizens in every other pur¬ 
suit. It is plain, that over such a population, no government could 
exist, but one like that beneath which we live, in which the people arc 
the direct source of power. Where this is the case, it is equally plain, 
that whatever improves and raises the condition of husbandmen, tends 
directly to sustain and fortify the social fabric. 
A very celebrated ancient poet exclaimed, “ Oh too happy farmers, 
did you but know your blessings.” If this could be said of the farmers 
of Italy, at the close of the civil wars,—subjects of an absolute prince, 
and a part of them only the owners cf the land they tilled, it may well 
be repeated of the husbandmen of New-England, the proprietors of a 
soil which furnishes a competence of all the good things of life; and 
the possession of an amount of blessings never surpassed, if ever equal¬ 
led. Not among the least of these privileges, is the rich birthright of 
patriotic recollections which has come down to us from our fathers ; and 
of which no portion of our country has more to boast, than the ancient 
county of Essex. It is no mere compliment, sir;—the county of Essex is 
a distinguished part of the state. It would be easy, within the limits of 
this single county, to find, in the history of other times, bright exam¬ 
ples of all the traits of character and conduct, which promote the pros- 
perty and honor of nations in peace and in war. From the early con- 
tests with the Indians and French,—from the time when the “Flower 
of Essex” fell at “ Bloody Brook,”—down to the close of the revolu¬ 
tion, the fathers and forefathers of those I have the honor to address, 
contributed a full share of the counsel and treasure, the valor and blood 
by which the cause of the country was directed, sustained, and carried 
through triumphant. * ' ♦ * * 
Nor let us not forget, if we have a patriotic ancestry to be prond oO 
—and if we have privileges to enjoy,—we have also incumbent duties 
to perform. The great principles of republican liberty are exposed to 
danger in peace as well as in war. Prosperity not less than trial may 
sap the foundation cf the social fabric; and there is at all times less 
danger from a foreign foe, than from party passion, individual selfish¬ 
ness, and general apathy. 
It will not, of course, be expected of me to enlarge upon the duties 
which devolve upon our husbandmen, with a view to guard against 
these dangers and perpetuate our institutions in their purity. I can 
but glance at the topic. But I may say, that the first and most impor¬ 
tant duty of the husbandman is to endeavor to preserve, and if it may 
be to strengthen, the broad foundation laid by our fathers, in a deep 
religious principle. Surely there is no class of the community, whose 
daily pursuits ought to furnish greater nourishment to the sense of re¬ 
ligious things. The reflecting mind it is true, beholds traces of a liigh- 
jer wisdom and goodness in every step of every walk of life; but the 
husbandman, who drops a seemingly lifeless seed into the cold damp 
'earth,—there in a great part to decay,—who sees the vital germ in a 
j few days pierce the clod,—rise into the air,—drink the sun’s rays and 
! the dews of heaven,—shoot upward and expand,—array itself in glories 
! beyond the royal vesture of Solomon,—extract from the same common 
earth and air a thousand varieties of the green of the leaf,—the rain¬ 
bow hues of the petals, the juicy or the solid substances of the fruit 
which is to form the food of man and his dependent animals—I say the 
! intelligent husbandman who beholds this, seems to step behind the veil, 
j which conceals the mysteries of creative power, and sit down, (if I 
dare so to speak) in the laboratory of Omnipotence. 
i Connected with the cultivation of the religious principle, and the na~ 
itural fruit of it, we look to our husbandmen for a high moral sense. 
| The worst feature in the degradation of many foreign countries, is the 
i moral condition of those who till the soil, showing itself in the extreme 
of intemperance, and the kindred vices. No man can fully understand 
; this, who has not witnessed it. In the general moral character of our 
population, we are warranted in saying, that it might serve as an ex¬ 
ample to the world. I do not think that out of New-England, (and I 
j repeat only a remark, which, I have heard several times from persons 
coming from other parts of the country,) you could assemble a con¬ 
course giving so much proof of sobriety, thrift, and industry, as is 
brought together in this town to-day, and might be assembled, on a si- 
Imilar occasion, in any town in Massachusetts. We look to our hus- 
| bandmen, by precept and example, to sustain, and if possible to elevate 
this sound state of morals in the community. 
Lastly, that I may say a single word on a subject, on which the ora¬ 
tor has preceded me—it is a great and just boast of the pilgrims and 
their descendants, that they made early and ample provisions for edu¬ 
cation. Farmers of Essex, hold fast of that boast. I had rather for 
the appearance, if I must choose betweeh them, see the country dotted 
all over, at its cross-roads, with its plain little village school-houses, 
than have the high places of a few large towns crowned with the most 
splendid fabrics of Grecian and Roman art. I had rather for the 
strength and defence of the country,—if I must choose between them, 
—see the roads that lead to those school-houses thronged with the 
children of both sexes, saluting the traveller as he passes, in the good 
old New-England way, with their little courtesy or nod, than gaze on 
regiments of mercenary troops parading upon the ramparts of impreg¬ 
nable fortresses. Aye, for the honor of the thing, I had rather have it 
said of me, that I was, by choice, the humble citizen of the state, mak¬ 
ing the best provision for the education of all its children, and that I 
had the heart to appreciate this blessing, than sit on a throne of ivory 
and gold, the monarch of an empire on which the sun never sets. Hus¬ 
bandmen, sow your seed of instruction in your sons’ and daughters’ 
i minds. It will grow up and bear fruit, though the driving storm scat¬ 
ter the blossoms of spring, or untimely frost overtake the hopes of au¬ 
tumn. Plant the germ of truth in the infant understandings of your 
children ; save, stint, spare, scrape,—do any thing but steal,—in order 
|to nourish that growth;—and it is little,—nothing to say, that it will 
] flourish when your grave-stones, crumbled into dust, shall mingle with 
j the dust they covered;—it will flourish, when that over-arched heaven 
shall pass away like a scroll, and the eternal sun, which lightens it 
shall set in blood ! 
MARL .—(Continued from page 124.) 
APPLICATION OF MARL, 
Many farmers either lay marl upon land sown with tares, thus ma¬ 
king a bastard fallow; or they apply it to grass land, or to a clover ley, 
to be broken up in the following year. The latter is certainly the 
preferable, as well as the most general practice, for it not alone pro¬ 
duces an ahundance of good pasture, but it affords time for the season 
to operate in bringing the marl into a fit state for future tillage crops, 
which cannot be done in the common course of cropping, because it 
becomes buried by the plough before it is properly mixed with the soil, 
especially if turned in deep the first earth. It should, therefore, be al- 
