CATTLE SHOW AT DEDHAM.*

AFTER making his personal acknowledgments to the Chair and to Mr Webster, Mr Everett went on as follows:

But

You have been pleased, Mr President, to inform the company that I am a Norfolk man. I am, sir. I was born in Dorchester, and my ancestors, from the first settlement of the country, were born and bred in this prosperous town of Dedham. I am not ashamed of my descent. My forefathers were humble men, farmers and mechanics, and pursued a most unambitious career. They left nothing to their descendants of either fame or fortune, but a good name. as times go, he is not the worst citizen who gives himself with unpretending industry to a private career; content to embark in the ship of state as a private passenger, and if need be, to work his passage before the mast. My course of life has carried me away from the paths trod by my ancestors. But as I advance in years, I am inclined to think with his excellency, that the pursuit of the farmer is most conducive to virtue and happiness. I will not compare it invidiously with other occupations; they are all honorable and all respectable, when pursued by honest men and for honest ends; but I do think, sir, upon the whole, and for the mass of mankind, that agriculture, as it is of necessity the only occupation which could be pursued by the majority, is in its nature entitled to the preference. I believe it to be the occu

* Remarks at the dinner of the Norfolk County Agricultural Society, at Dedham, on the 26th of September, 1849, Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, president of the society, in the chair.

pation most favorable to health, to tranquillity of mind, to simple manners, to frugal habits, and to what is of utmost consequence in a republican government-equality of condition. What more is wanted to make up an occupation in life most favorable to happiness? Certainly there is no other pursuit, which, to the same degree lies, at the basis of the entire social system. I am not speaking without warrant, Mr President, for you have told us the same thing to-day in better language. It is in fact the consenting judgment of the world.

In the infancy of our race, men could express their feelings of gratitude and wonder in reference to agriculture and its fruits only by saying that the products of the soil were the gifts of Heaven. Corn, wine, and oil, the implements of husbandry, and the skill to use them, were, to their simple apprehension, all given by the gods. The wisdom of man was not sufficient to account for the introduction of these beneficent gifts. The descriptions of China tell us that even to this day, the sovereign of that empire, the despotic master of one third part of the human race, in order to show his high esteem for agriculture, once in the year, holds the plough and turns a furrow, in the presence of his court and of all the highest dignitaries of the land. When we consider the almost idolatrous homage paid by the Chinese to their emperors, we shall better appreciate the significance of a ceremony like this. One cannot but recall the beautiful allusion of Thomson,

In ancient times, the sacred plough employed

The kings and awful fathers of mankind;

And some, with whom compared, your insect tribes

Are but the beings of a summer's day,

Have held the scale of empire, ruled the storm

Of mighty war; then, with unwearied hand,

Disdaining little delicacies, seized

The plough, and greatly independent lived."

But we need not, sir, go back to the past, to find the times when agriculture has been held in the highest estimation.

The gentleman who has just taken his seat (Mr Webster) will bear me out when I say, that in England, at the present day, it is the great interest. Land is the favorite investment, though it rarely yields an income of more than three per centum. As soon as a man becomes possessed of a fortune in England, he buys land. If the estate be large, the greater part will be leased to tenants; but a considerable proprietor generally retains a portion of land in his own hands. Every thing pertaining to its cultivation-the improvement of the soil, the contrivance of agricultural implements, the choice and succession of crops, the warfare against noxious insects-receives a degree of attention, in that country, hardly known here. The best talent, unwearied research, and capital in abundance, are enlisted in the service of husbandry. Mr Webster, from his own observation, will tell you that the annual meetings of the Royal Agricultural Society are deemed of greatest interest by the most intelligent portion of the community. The prizes that are given at those meetings are objects of competition to all, from the consort of the queen down to the tenant farmer and the farm laborer. At these festivals, persons belonging to the highest nobility and to the wealthiest gentry in the kingdom are seen examining the condition of the animals at the pens, or carefully inspecting the implements of husbandry in the machine yard.

The character of the agriculture of any region must depend on the soil and climate. Mr Webster has given us an account of the root culture of England. We cannot have it, as he has told us, to the same extent in New England, although it will be carried, unquestionably, much farther than it has been. Nor will our climate and soil permit us to cultivate, on a large scale, what may be called, in the temperate region, the great staple of agriculture - that is, wheat. Much less can we produce the staples of southern and tropical climates. Still, however, I do not know that agriculture is not as important an interest in this as in any other part of the world. I believe that by the aid of our golden grain, the Indian corn, (which I imagine will prove in the end the most valuable gold dug out of the earth on either side of

this continent, eastern or western,)-I believe that with the aid of Indian corn, the invaluable potato, and the other vegetable products adapted to our soil and climate, we may have farms that will compare advantageously with those of any part of the world. I mean farms on which a moderate outlay of capital, judiciously invested and well worked, will yield a reasonable profit; and that is the most that can be done any where; for great speculative profits can never exist in the pursuit of any great permanent business, and are of course not to be taken into account in a comparison of this kind. It is true that no skill, that no thrift can make our soil yield the cotton plant, the sugar-cane, the tobaccowhat shall I call it-plant, or rather weed. But we have no reason to regret them. On the contrary, it is these comparatively barren plains, these sterile hill-sides, to which we owe, in the last result, the prosperity of New England. It is precisely to these that we are indebted for that patient industry which is more than a counterbalance for a rich alluvial soil, and for that aptitude for the arts and energy of purpose which are vastly more productive of wealth than a genial climate. Who does not know that it is precisely such a region as that in which we live, that has been at all times the cradle of those inventions which seem to endow metal, and wood, and stone, with muscular activity and living sense; which enable a man to say to this piece of machinery, framed of wood and metal, "Go and remove the chaff from the wheat," and to that structure of stone and wood, "Throw out your revolving arms to the winds, and grind my corn into bread"? Where were these primitive machines, and the thousand still more ingenious and complicated contrivances of modern art, invented? On a soil and beneath a climate like our own. May I not go further, and say, that it is a soil of moderate fertility, beneath the climate of the temperate regions, that has always been the cradle of constitutional freedom, and of that passion for liberty, which are the great hereditary glories of the Anglo-Saxon race? Poor as our soil, ungenial as our climate may be, it is precisely to these

that it is owing, under Providence, that our farms are tilled by the arms of freemen.

There were some things, Mr President, that I thought to say to you; but Governor Briggs and Mr Webster have dealt with my intended speech somewhat as the farmer deals with a barberry-bush on the side of his field. They have passed their great breaking-up plough through it, and grubbed it all up. I will only speak of one circumstance which is going, as I think, to prove more favorable to our agriculture than has been generally supposed, and that is, the multiplication of railroads. We have hitherto, perhaps, thought more of the benefit resulting from these new facilities of communication, in connection with commerce and manufactures. But I believe they are to do quite as much for our agriculture. I think that this network of railroads thrown over the land, is to be of more benefit to the husbandry interest of New England, than all the gold of California. It will put it in the power of the farmer to get his supplies from the seaboard, and to carry his produce to market, much more advantageously than formerly. In short, sir, it will enable him to live three days in one; and that, if one lives wisely, is no small matter.

There is another thing worthy of consideration. You stated, sir, that our young men of enterprise had hitherto committed a great error, in leaving all other pursuits and thronging to the city. I agree with you entirely. But a counter-current is now taking place. It is getting to be much more common now than formerly, when a man has acquired the means of doing it, to go back to his native village, and to seek a quiet retreat under the trees, beneath whose shade he was born. This practice will be greatly facilitated by the railroads. Within a distance of twenty-five or thirty miles around the metropolis, we see constantly springing up a crop of these neat little cottages. Men find that they can do business in town, and yet enjoy the pure air and free elbow-room of the country, for the residence of their families, far away from the smoke, and dust, and noisy streets of the city. This