CONCLUSION.

Farmers of Essex county! I have now finished the work you gave me to do. Rapidly I have run over the points most prominent in presenting, as best I might, the Relations of Agriculture to Man. I have attempted to show its worth, its freedom, its intelligence, its dignity, and its purity. I have not given you one word of advice; but impressed as I am with the absolute independence of the farmer, I will not close without urging all whom my voice or words can reach, to stay upon their farms. The tendency of late years has been to rush to the cities, deluded, as the young men and maidens have been, by false ideas of ease, and wealth and pleasures. To all such I repeat my words-stay at home; at home, where your fathers lived, and where their graves are even unto our day; at home, where you were born and your earliest loves were cherished; at home, amid the scenes upon which your childhood gazed in gladness, and where, in the most distant land to which you may wander, you will at last wish to lie down and die. If you want wealth, seek it there. Agriculture may be a slow mode, but it is sure. California with its mines of gold, and Nevada with its soil cropping out with silver, do not enrich so many relatively as do the bleak hills of New Hampshire, the sheep pastures of Vermont, and the deep forests of Maine. The few succeed, the many perish. Be ye not deceived either, in the great gains of successful merchants and manufacturers ; men like the Lawrences, Astors, and Girards, who own factorics, and ships, and houses, and stocks-whose stores, filled with goods, amaze us; whose palatial palaces delight our eyes, and whose generosity sometimes surprises the world. Remember that where there is one millionaire, one merchant prince, there are scores who are prematurely old with hard labor and excessive cares, while all their hopes have fled through the courts of bankruptcy. The few, who loom up in the distance, are as beacons upon a dangerous coast everywhere strewn with wrecks. You deceive yourselves, too, if you dream of more

pleasure in the trades and professions, less labor, or fewer anxieties, than on the farms.

Over all the rest of the world the husbandman has one sure advantage-he can have a sufficiency for the supply of his real wants, if not an abundance of wealth. The sun will rise on his corn as well as on his richer neighbors; the rain will come for his pastures as much as though his cellar was full of gold; if he labors, he will have something to eat. There is none of that squalid poverty in the country that crowds the lanes and alleys of the town. If worst comes to worst, the farmer may live upon the fruits of his own acres, and nobody can starve him; nobody can make him afraid. Politics may change and statesmen go up or down; creeds may pass away, or keep churches wrangling and old ladies quarreling; storms may sweep the seas and bury the hopes of merchants in their deep waves; tariffs may be made or unmade to the alarm of manufacturers; and financial revulsions may shake tradesmen and bankers, but the farmer remains lord of himself, king of his own household, ruler of his own acres, disposer of his own sheep and cattle. He calls no man master; none may control his action; none govern his vote; none dictate his creed; none tell him what he shall think, how he shall dress, what shall be the cut of his cloth or the fashion of his boots. Oh, the glorious independence of the man who lives on his own earth, which he owns from the centre of the globe to the high heavens; who can snap his fingers in the face of the world and feel that he is himself, and the equal of any other man, to whom he can say as Black Hawk, the Indian chief, said to General Jackson- "You are one man and I am another man." Not Napoleon himself, whose nod makes the nations bend, is more a man than the free, intelligent, independent American farmer. Not the Czar of all the Russias; not prophet or prince, not lordling by birth, a Jew in wealth, is more independent than he. He labors, it is true, but his is a noble labor that makes the world richer and better, holier and happier. It is not the slavery of the South that knows a master and a lash;

it is not the serfage of the East that knocks at the door of the noble born; it is not the cringing of political aspirants who sell their manhood for place and live in fear of their own shadows -far less than shadows are they; it is not the subserviency of wealth to power, which debases itself that it may retain and gather more wealth; it is not the submission of professional life, that asks where one shall go to church to win favor and patronage, or of trade that whines behind a counter measuring ribbon, with simpering words and less than womanly weakness-no! no! it is none of these, but that strong, muscular, healthy, joyous manhood which comes alone from God to uncontaminated man in his original employment; that conscious dignity of one's own selfhood, that all men love, and which is more valuable than life itself. Young men of the farms, maidens of the country, children of the plough, everywhere can ye be, and everywhere should ye be yourselves; free to think, to will, to do. This is your glorious privilege; maintain it, and then you will continue, as you have ever been, the hope and stay of the world. But when the yeomanry of a country become servile and corrupt, there is no longer hope of that land. Cling, therefore, to your farms, and gird yourselves for manly labor, and God be with and bless the American farmer.

REPORTS. &c.

PLOUGHING-WITH DOUBLE TEAMS.

The Committee on Ploughing with Double Teams have attended to the duty assigned them, and report that ten teams entered and ploughed. One team with the Michigan, the others with the common plough.

We are unanimous in recommending the award of the first premium, of $7, for Michigan plough, to Messrs. Barker and Foster, of North Andover.

Common plough-first premium, of $10, to A. P. Fuller, of North Andover; time, 37 minutes, with Lion plough, No. 61. Second premium, of $9, to Messrs. Poor & Winship, of West Newbury; work done in 54 minutes, with Prouty & Mears plough, No. 155.

Third premium, of $8, to D. L. Goodrich, of West Newbury; time, 40 minutes, with Eagle plough, No. 50.

Fourth premium, of $7, to Alley and Carey, of Marblehead; time, 45 minutes, with Lion plough, No. 61.

Fifth premium, of $6, to Jaques and Bray, of Newbury; time, 36 minutes, Eagle plough, No. 20.

Sixth premium, of $5, to Joseph Goodrich, of West Newbury; time, 64 minutes, Prouty & Mears plough, No. 155.

The Committee are also unanimous in the opinion that the land is the most miserable that they ever saw ploughmen and ploughs exhibited upon, and think the thanks of the Society and the owner of the land are due the ploughmen for their patience and perseverance in the work.

The Committe on Single Teams report:—

There were six teams entered for premiums, but five, however, appeared on the ground.

The Committee would recommend the

1st premium, of $7, to Richard T. Jaques, Newbury.