84 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



it is employed. The Presiclent of the United States, in his last annual mes- 

 sage, speaking upon this subject says : 



"^ly recommendations in former messages are renewed in favor of enlarging tlie 

 facilities of the Department of Agriculture. Agriculture is the leading interest 

 and the permanent industry of our peoi)le. It is to the abundance of agricultural 

 productions as compared with our home consumption, and the largely increased and 

 highly profitable market abroad which we have enjoyed in recent years, that we are 

 mainly indebted for our present prosperity as a people. We must look to its contin- 

 ued maintenance for substantial resource. There is no branch of industry in which 

 labor, directed by scientific knowledge, yields such increased production in compar- 

 ison with unskilled labor, and no branch of the public service to which the encour- 

 agement of liberal appropriations can be more appropriately extended. The 

 omission to render such aid is not a wise economy, but on the contrary undoubtedly 

 results in losses of immense sums annually that might be saved through well-directed 

 efforts by the Government to promote this vital interest." 



There is, however, another branch of my subject to wiiich I wish briefly to 

 advert. The farmer has other duties to perform besides the mere prosecution 

 of his business of farming. He owes a duty to society which he must perform. 

 It has been said that if a man can do nothing more than laugh it is his duty 

 to go into society and do that. In other words, it is the duty of every man, 

 whether he is a farmer or not, to contribute his mite towards entertaining and 

 instructing those about him, and while a person is performing this duty he 

 will be astonished at the amount of information he himself will acquire. 

 There is no person in this world of sound mind who knows so little that he 

 cannot impart some information to others. Then, too, the farmer is a citizen ; 

 he is a citizen of the wisest, and the best, and the freest government that ever 

 existed. As such citizen he has grave duties to perform. The success of a 

 free government, as ours is, depends upon the power of each individual citizen 

 to 'govern himself. Those engaged in agricultural pursuits in this country 

 hold in their hands about six millions of ballots, nearly two-thirds of the entire 

 vote. It cannot be possible that any person would gainsay the proposition that 

 it is vastly important that these ballots be intelligently as well as honestly cast. 

 Some body has said that if this country ever dies, "you can write upon its 

 monument, killed by the people." I would rather say, write upon its monu- 

 ment, killed by the farmers, because they have it in their power to save or 

 destroy it. Some one may say, yes, all this is very well, but when are we to 

 study and when are we to do all tliis thinking. It is an old and I believe a 

 true saying, *' Where there is a will there is a way." The great waste of this 

 •world is the waste of time. Every body wastes more or less of it. "When 

 money or property is lost it may by industry and economy be replaced, but 

 when an hour or a day is lost it is gone forever. How long would it take a 

 person to read and understand ten pages of any ordinary book? Yet if ten 

 pages are read and understood each working day for ten years, thirty thousand 

 pages are mastered. 



Why should a farmer not be an educated, thinking man? I would thank 

 any person to give me one substantial reason. I have been unable to find one 

 reason in my reflections and readings upon this subject. Tlie ownership and 

 cultivation of the soil has been the true source of dignity, of wealth, and of 

 power since the dawn of history. Every possession is transitory. He who- 

 owns a portion of the earth has a property that is not disturbed by the fluctua- 

 tions that sweep away fortunes. No, no. 



"Earth, of man the bounteous mother 



Feeds him still with corn and wine. 

 He who best would aid a brother. 



Shares with him these gifts divine." 



