Mr. President, I congratulate you on the position which you are again called to occupy; you have often been honored by your fellow-citizens; your voice bas been heard sounding the tones of liberty in the councils of the country, when the hearts of freemen were failing them for fear. Your voice has never been heard excepting in the cause of human welfare; but, Sir, you never filled a prouder seat than that which you now occupy. On behalf of the Managers of the American Institute, I bid you welcome, fellow-citizens, to the festival now open to the thousands of New-York, and those who will crowd to it from other parts of the land; and if, as you survey the ingenuity of our artisans, the skill of our manufacturers, the presevering industry of our farmers, the taste of our florists, and the beautiful fabrics of American matrons, you should happen to say, "We are a great people," the evidence and proof around you, on every hand, will go far to save you from contradiction.

1

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 also honored the speaker with the pleasant task of delivering to you their views in relation to the great subject of Agriculture.

The importance 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 of elevated rank, may engage in the cultivation of the soil without descending from their high station.

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 noble 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 earth by the sweat of the brow, in clearing away

thorns and briars, and causing our vallies to exhibit their golden harvests, and our gardens to blossom with roses."

For what object, then, may I ask, are we assembled in these fields to-day? Is it to meet the foe on old Chatterton, yonder, where Washington intrenched himself with his gallant band of patriots? No! my fellow-citizens, we have good reason to be thankful to that God, who is "the author of peace and the lover of concord," that no bugle sounds this day to summon us, as it did our fathers, to that hill-top, in this very month, 1776.*

But rather, that we meet here as the friends of peace, willing to have our swords beaten into ploughshares. Surely we can say, with the sweet Psalmist of Israel, that "the lines are fallen to us in pleasant places-yea, we have a goodly heritage."

Mr. President; although other avocations may offer greater prizes in the lottery of life, yet if we compare the advantages of rural industry with those of any of the common occupations to which men devote themselves, we may venture to affirm, that he who is engaged in agriculture has no reason to be dissatisfied with the lot which Providence has assigned him. Its superiority, in point of salubrity, over every sedentary employment, is too apparent to need illustration; and it affords more of those common enjoyments which constitute much of the elements of happiness, than any other state of equal mediocrity. The farm-yard, the orchard and the dairy, supply, almost without expense abundant means for those gratifications usually termed the comforts of life; besides many luxuries that are beyond the reach of people of humble means. It is true that, it has its toils and its cares, and those neither few nor slight-and perhaps the farmer's life is more laborious than any other; but then, his home is far removed from the crowded alleys of a city, and the morals of his children are not exposed to the contaminating influence of a densly populated manufacturing town. The farmer passes his days in the healthful labors of the field, while the mechanic or shopkeeper wears away his life at the loom or the counter. Perhaps there is no man who earns his bread by the favor of the public who enjoys independence in an equal degree with the farmer. His business, though subject to more casualties than almost any other, is yet so divided among many risks, that he is rarely exposed to the hazard of total failure; the same weather which injures one crop often improves an

This address was delivered in view of Chatterton Hill, the scene of the battle of White Plains, 28th Oct., 1776.

other, and the very difficulty of a critical season offers a field for exertions by which he is frequently a gainer. "In twenty-four years experience upon a considerable scale," says Mr. Pitt, an English farmer, "I always made the most money in difficult seasons." Possess

ing on his land all the means of life, he is under no corroding anxiety regarding his daily subsistence; he is removed from those collisions of interest and those struggles for precedence which rouse the worst passions of the human race; and his constant observation of the wise provisions of nature, for the care of all her creatures, can hardly fail to impress him with a full belief in, and reliance upon, that God which made "the round world, and they that dwell therein."

In fervid language, the poet advocates the claims of Agriculture to public consideration:

"Thou first of arts! source of domestic ease,
Pride of the land, and Patron of the seas→→
Thrift agriculture! lend thy potent aid,
Spread thy green fields where dreary forests shade;
Where savage man pursues his savage prey,
Let the white flocks in verdant pastures play;
From blooming orchard and from flowery vale,
Give thy rich fragrance to the gentle gale;
Reward with amplest boon the laborer's hand,
And pour thy gladdening bounties o'er the land.
Columbia's sons! spurn not the rugged toil—
Your nation's glory is a CULTURED SOIL!
Rome's Cincinnatus, of illustrious birth,
Increased his laurels while he till'd the earth,
And China's monarch lays the sceptre down,
Nor deems the task unworthy of the crown."

It may be safely said, that nothing is better calculated to enlarge the mind, and to extend the sphere of our rational pleasures than the contemplation of the economy of nature; while to those who beset a due value on intellectual enjoyment, the study of agriculture offers an inexhaustible fund of amusement, as well as instruction. The mere occupation of the mind in tracing the origin and progress neof any new improvement, will be found productive of the purest gratification. It has been well observed by Sir Humphrey Davy, that "the frequent failure of experiments, conducted after the most refined theoretic views, is far from proving the inutility of such notrials; one happy result, which can generally improve the method of "cultivation, is worth the labor of a whole life, and an unsuccessful experiment, well observed, must establish some truth, or tend to remove some prejudice."

What wonderful changes have been wrought in the vegetable kingdom by the arts of gardening and agriculture ! How many herbs that were once considered worthless, are now cultivated among the most valued, as well as the most common of our table vegetables. Several of those now grown in the fields, were, at no very distant period, little known, or considered as garden delicacies, and exclusively confined to the tables of the rich; and it has been conjectured that not one of the numerous kinds and varieties of fruit, now found in our gardens and orchards, are what they were in their aboriginal state, but are the offspring of accident or skill.

According to Sir Joseph Banks, the potato, one of the most important culinary vegetables of the present day, "was first introduced into England from America, by the colonists sent out by Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1586.* It was first cultivated in Ireland by the grandfather of Sir Robert Southwell, from tubers given him by Sir Walter Raleigh." At this early period it was looked upon as so great a rarity, that it was only planted in small quantities. In the year 1619, the common market-price of the potato was one shilling English per lb. For a long time it was treated as a fruit, baked in pie with spices and wine, or eaten with sugar; and nearly two hundred years elapsed from its first introduction before it was cultivated as a field crop.t

Since that time what rapid advances have been made in Agriculture by the aid of our State Fairs, the Americun Institute, and our County Societies! It has been truly said, that the

great business of America, at the present day, is Agriculture, for already has nature written upon her- The Granary of the world.' Two hundred millions of human beings can draw their sustenance from the

In De Bry's collection of Voyages, he describes a plant called Openawk, which is,' in all probability, identical with the potato. Gerarde, in his Herbal, published in 1597, figures the potato under the name of the potato of Virginia; hence, he says, he received the roots.

"The chemical physiologist will tell you that the well ripened potato, when properly cooked, contains every element that man requires for nutrition, and in the best proportions in which they are found in any plant whatever. There is the abounding supply of starch for enabling him to maintain the process of breathing, and for generating the necessary warmth of body; there is the nitrogen for contributing to the growth and renovation of organs; the lime and the phosphorus for f the bones, and all the salts which a healthy circulation demands. In fine, the potato may well be called the universal plant; and the disease under which it now labors is a universal calamity.”—Professor C. U. Shepard's Address, delivered before the Agricultural Societies of Hampden and Hampshire Counties.