ADDRESS.

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE SOCIETY:

In addressing you to-day, I propose to notice briefly some of the leading topics of interest connected with the business of Farming. My remarks will be based mainly upon personal observation, made during my experience as a practical farmer. Within my remembrance, it was indeed a laborious task for a man to conduct the business of the farm successfully. He was expected to turn the double swath in the mowing field, to lead the hired men as they were desired to follow, to pitch on the hay, to hoe the hardest row-in short, to bear the brunt of the work. Great physical strength, and endurance, as well as good judgment, were indispensable. But now what a change! To lead the labor of the farm does not require great strength and power of muscle, but brains are called into requisition, and skill in the management of machinery.

The farmer while riding around his field on the mowing machine, hay tedder, or horse rake, may overlook

and direct those less skilled than himself, and at the same time accomplish the labor of ten men, with no more exertion than is pleasant for exercise. With Raymond's Hay Elevator he may stow away his hay in his barn with comparatively little labor and a great saving of time; but the farmer impatiently awaits the time when he may for his money obtain an improved hay-loading machine, so vainly sought by many of us.

The potato crop can now be grown entirely without hand labor. True's Potato Planter cuts the potatoe, drops, furrows and covers, at one operation. With Holbrook & Chandler's Horse Hoes, the labor of hoeing is wholly performed by horse power. By the use of the side hill plough, the harrow and the drag that any farmer can make in two hours, costing not more than two dollars for materials-than which no greater labor-saving implement has yet been invented for the farm-and with Willis' Seed Sower, the Danvers Truckle Hoe, all of the root crops can be grown with about one half the labor formerly required.

The changing of an inferior variety of apples or pears for a superior one, is now so simplified and made easy by the use of a liquid grafting-wax, applied with a brush, that no one need be without the choicest kind of such fruit, who has healthy vigorous trees of whatever size they may be. Nor has improvement stopped here. We need not leave Essex County to find that within a few years there have been introduced by skill and careful cultivation, the Hubbard Squash, the Stone Mason, and Marblehead Mammoth Cabbages, Emery's Early Cabbage, a superior early Tomato, and Lettuce, the Danvers Onion, all better, in some respects, than before existed; and to the list of fruits have been added Allen's

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two hybrid grapes, and those of Mr. Rogers, possessing qualities superior to those of any others, while other parts of the State have added Dana's Hovey and Clapp's Favorite pears, the Concord Grape, and the President Wilder Strawberry.

Other fruits and vegetables might well be mentioned. The neighboring State of Vermont has made such vast strides in the improvement of the Potato as to cause those who have lived through the morus multicaulus, Rohan Potato and hen fevers, to stand aghast, waiting for the excitement to abate, to see if Bresee's No. 4 is really two hours earlier than the Early Rose. But all may be assured that great improvement has really been made in the potato. And yet there are persons among that numerous class who, because they lived upon a farm until seventeen years of age-and so, forsooth, "know all about farming"-are asking what improvement has been made in Agriculture?

Who ever heard, until within a few years, of seventyfour tons of mangel-wurzel being grown upon one acre of land; of thirty-six tons of carrots, or nine hundred bushels of onions per acre? Such crops as these are facts that can be proved. Such crops have been grown and can be grown again.

Several French and German chemists have estimated the value of English hay in comparison with other kinds of food for milch cows, and they make two hundred and fifty pounds of beet roots equal to one hundred pounds of hay. According to this estimate the above crop of mangolds would equal in value nearly thirty tons of hay; or supposing the chemists' estimate to be only half right, the root crop would then equal fifteen tons of hay per It has been ascertained by actual experiment

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that breeding swine can be kept upon raw mangolds alone from October to May, in good thrifty condition. Can any one doubt, with such facts, the great advantage: of growing this and other root crops?

Various breeds of Foreign Cattle have also been thoroughly tested; and in my opinion the Ayrshire stock. has proved the best adapted to our pastures, and for milking qualities, heads the list. Doubtless there are some specimens among our native stock as good as the best of any foreign breed for milk, but the native breed cannot be so generally relied upon; therefore the thanks of the farmers of Essex are due to the Massachusetts. Society for the promotion of Agriculture, and to some private individuals for the introduction of that superior breed of cattle.

I think any close observer of the cattle pens at our exhibitions for the last twenty years will have noticed this fact that any breed, of whatever size, will, within two or three generations become adapted in size and form to the locality and pastures in which it is placed, although retaining more or less of its own peculiar marks and qualities; hence the economy of introducing such breeds as correspond pretty nearly in size with our native cattle.

Although two years in succession of severe drought, which occurred four or five years ago, so weakened the fruit buds of the apple trees as nearly to destroy the crop of fruit, and the canker worm, with other insects, has since committed such ravages upon our orchards as to make the cultivation of the apple rather discouraging—yet, let us take heart. By the use of printers' ink and tarred paper, from November 1st to April 1st, at a cost of from five to eight cents per tree, our orchards can

be perfectly protected from the canker worm; and by securing the small birds from the depredation of their natural enemies, idle boys, cats and crows, and with good cultivation, I feel sure that we may again be blessed with abundant crops of that beautiful, delicious and health-giving fruit. Thus we shall be enabled to return the compliment of presenting to our modern Eve the no longer forbidden fruit, and under such circumstances and conditions that we may realize that the Paradise once lost, is regained.

Who that has planted an apple tree, grafted, trained and cultivated it, protected and cared for it from its nursery growth to its orchard maturity, does not love it with a paternal love? With what pleasurable emotions he recognizes the friendly greeting of its gentle nod on a Whitsunday morning, as he beholds it, one mass of rose and lily blossoms filling the sunny air with fragrance, and listens to the soft murmur of delight is suing from its branches. As he stands thus, what man can avoid thanking his God for being allowed to aid in such a creation. And again in October, with what satisfaction he approaches his tree, with basket and barrels, to harvest those glorious pippins that hang so temptingly within his reach, affording ample means of profit, health and luxury. Who that owns an acre of land can afford to dispense with so much happiness as may be derived from an apple tree? Certainly no Essex County farmer. My own experience is that no part of my farm yields greater income for the labor expended than the orchard. If the crop is small, the price is usually large. Let us then continue to cultivate the apple as a source of profit, of health to our families, and of growth to our social natures.