2 heart's garment; still towers aloft, spins its verdant skeins of vegetable floss,' displays its dancing tassels, surcharged with fertilizing dust, and at last ripens into two or three magnificent batons like this (an ear of Indian corn), each of which is studded with hundreds of grains of gold, every one possessing the same wonderful properties as the parent grain, every one instinct with the same marvelous reproductive powers. 13. There are seven hundred and twenty grains on the ear which I hold in my hand. I presume there were two or three such ears on the stock. This would give us one thousand four hundred and forty, perhaps two thousand one hundred and sixty grains as the produce of one. They would yield, next season, if they were all successfully planted, four thousand two hundred, perhaps six thousand three hundred ears. Who does not see that, with this stupendous progression, the produce of one grain in a few years might feed all mankind? And yet, with this visible creation annually springing and ripening around us, there are men who doubt, who deny the existence of God. Gold from the Sacramento River, sir! There is a săc'rament' in this ear of corn enough to bring an atheist to his knees. II. 125. AGRICULTURE. ART SECOND. UT it will be urged, perhaps, sir, in behalf of the Califor BUT niä gold, that, though one crop only of gold can be găthered from the same spot, yět, once gathered, it lasts to the end of time; while our vegetable gold is produced only to be consumed, and, when consumed, is gone forever. But this, Mr. President, would be a most egregious error both ways. 2. It is true the California gold will last forever unchanged if its owner chooses; but, while it so lasts it is of no use; no, not as much as its value in pig-iron," which makes the best of 1 Floss, a downy or silky substance. 2 Baton, (bå tông′), a staff; a badge of honor. 'Sǎc'ra ment, an oath or vow; a holy rite; the Lord's Supper. 'A' the ist, one who denies or disbelieves the existence of a God, or supreme intelligent Being. له 'Pig-iron, (pig l`urn), iron in blocks or bars; cast iron. ballast; whereas gold, while it is gold, is good for little or nothing. You can neither eat it, nor drink it, nor smoke it. You can neither wear it, nor burn it as fuel, nor build a house with it it is really useless till you exchange it for consumable, perishable goods; and the more plentiful it is, the less its exchangeable value. : 3. Far different the case with our Atlantic gold: it does not perish when consumed, but, by a nobler alchemy' than that of Paracelsus,' is 'transmuted in consumption to a higher life. "Perish in consumption," did the old miser say? "Thou fool, that which thou sowèst is not quickened except it die." 4. The burning pen of inspiration, ranging heaven and earth for a similitūde,' to convey to our poor minds some not inadequate idea of the mighty doctrine of the resurrection, can find no symbol so expressive as "bare grain, it may chance of wheat or some other grain." To-day a senseless plant, to-morrow it is human bone and muscle, vein and artery, sinew and nerve; beating pulse, heaving lungs, toiling, ah, sometimes, overtoiling brain. 5. Last June, it sucked from the cold breast of the earth the watery nourishment of its distending sap-vessels; and now it clothes the manly form with warm, cordial flesh; quivers and thrills with the fivefold mystery of sense; purveys and ministers to the higher mystery of thought. 6. Heaped up in your grǎn'aries this week, the next it will strike in the stalwart arm, and glow in the blushing cheek, and flash in the beaming eye; till we learn at last to realize that the slender stalk, which we have seen shaken by the summer breeze, 'Băl' last, weight put into the hold of vessels, when not loaded, to make them float steadily. "Al' che my, chemistry, as practiced in former times; or the proposed, but imaginary art of the changing of base metals into gold, and of finding some universal remedy for all diseases. 'Păr`a cěl' sus, one of the early alchemists, was born about the year 1493, near Zurich, a city in the northern part of Switzerland. He is considered as the founder of the modern science of medicine. He died in 1541, in his forty-eighth year. 4 Inspi rā' tion, the act of inspir. ing, breathing in, infusing, and the like; inhalation; a divine influence by which the prophets, apostles, or sacred writers, were prepared to receive and communicate moral or religious truth. 5 Sĩ mĭl'i tūde, likeness; compar. ison. • Fivefold mystery of sense, the five senses, hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, and tasting. bending in the corn-field under the yellow burden of harvest, is indeed the "staff of life," which, since the world began, has supported the toiling and struggling myriads' of humanity on the mighty pilgrimage of being. 7. Yes, sir, to drop the allegory,' and speak without a figure, it is this noble agriculture, for the promotion of which this great company is assembled from so many parts of the Union, which feeds the human race, and all the humbler orders of animated nature dependent on man. With the exception of what is yielded by the fisheries and the chase (a limited, though cer tainly not an insignificant, source of supply), agriculture is the steward which spreads the daily table of mankind. 3 8. Twenty-seven millions of human beings, by accurate computation, ǎwōke this very morning, in the United States, all requiring their "daily bread," whether they had the grace to pray for it or not, and, under Providence, all looking to the agriculture of the country for that daily bread, and the food of the domestic animals depending on them; a demand, perhaps, as great as their own. 4 9. Mr. President, it is the daily duty of you farmers to satisfy this gigantic appetite; to fill the mouths of these hungry millions of these starving millions, I might say, for if, by any catastrophe, the supply were cut off for a few days, the life of the country-human and brute—would be extinct. How nobly this great duty is performed by the agriculture of the country, I need not say at this board, especially as the subject has been discussed by the gentleman who preceded me. 10. The wheat crop of the United States the present year, is variously estimated at from one hundred and fifty to one hun dred and seventy-five millions of bushels; the oat crop at four hundred millions of bushels; the Indian corn, our precious vegetable gold, at one thousand millions of bushels!-a bushel, at least, for every human being on the face of the globe. Of 1 Myr i ads, a myriad is the number of ten thousand, but it is sometimes used for any very large number; a very great many. 'Al' le go ry, a story in which the apparent meaning is not the real one, but is intended to declare some important truth with greater force and spirit. 'Cŏm`pu ta' tion, calculation; reckoning. Catastrophe, (ka tås' tro fe), a final and, usually, unfortunate event; calamity; disaster. the other cereal,' and of the leguminous crops, I have seen no estimate. 11. Even the humble article of hay,-this poor timothy, herds' grass, and red-top, which, not rising to the dignity of the food of man, serves only for the subsistence of the mute partners of his toil,—the hay crop of the United States is probably but little, if any, inferior in value to the whole crop of cotton, which the glowing imagination of the South sometimes regards as the great bond which binds the civilized nations of the earth together. EDWARD EVERETT. HE III. 126. THE HUSKER'S SONG. EAP high the farmer's wintry hoard! No richer gift has Autumn poured 2. Let other lands, exulting, glean 3. We better love the hardy gift To cheer us when the storm shall drift 4. Through vales of grass and meads of flowers, While on the hills the sun and showers 5. We dropped the seed o'er hill and plain, And frightened, from our sprouting grain, 1 Ce're al, relating to grain that is good for food. 2 Le gu'min ous, peas, beans, and other vegetables that grow in pods. 6. All through the long, bright days of June, 7. And now, with Autumn's moonlit eves, 8. There, richer than the fabled gift, Fair hands the broken grain shall sift, 9. Let vapid idlers loll in silk Around their costly board; Give us the bowl of samp and milk, 10. Where'er the wide old kitchen hearth Who will not thank the kindly earth, 11. Then shame on all the proud and vain, 12. Let earth withhold her goodly root, Give to the worm the orchard's fruit, 13. But let the good old crop adorn Send up our thanks to God! JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. 1 A pŏllo, one of the principal gods of the Greeks and Romans; the presiding deity of archery, prophecy, music, and medicine. |