567 

 ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF HILLSDALE COUNTY, 

 BY R. F. JOHNSTONE, ON THE IITH OF OCTOBER, 1855. 



Mr. President, and Members of the Agricultural Society of Hills- 

 dale County: 



I meet you here to-day under the disadvantage of having recently 

 suffered from severe illness, from which I am not yet entirely recovered; 

 and I can assure you that nothing less than the strong desire I had to 

 make your personal acquaintance, together with the promise I had given 

 your representative, Judge Emery, that I would most certainly visit you 

 on this the occasion of your annual fair, could have induced me to leave 

 home at this time. 



Last summer I made a sort of flying visit along the great inland 

 thoroughfare which runs through your beautiful county, and the mo- 

 mentary glimpses which such a ride only aftbrds of the farms, openings, 

 small prairies and groves of timber, gave me a very favorable impression 

 of the agricultural advantages of Hillsdale and of a large portion of 

 Southern Michigan. 



Hillsdale county, according to the late State census, in point of popu- 

 lation, area of improved land, productions and manufactures, stands 

 about in the rank of the seventh or eighth county in the State. From 

 the great preponderance of such articles as wool, wheat, corn, pork, butter 

 and cheese, and the small amount of capital invested in manufacturing, it 

 is very evident that nearly the whole w^ealth of this county is centered in 

 the hands of those engaged in farming. It also appears that the kind 

 of husbandry which mostly prevails is that usually known under the 

 style of " mixed farmingT 



There are, as I suppose you all know, several kinds of farming, such 

 as stock and grazier farming, where the whole economy of the farm 

 consists in raising, on extensive pastures, large herds of cattle or of sheep, 

 and where the profits arise from the yearly sales of cattle, sheep or 

 wool. This is the most simple of all kinds of farming, as well as the 

 most primitive; being that which prevailed when the hoar Chaldee 

 watched his flocks and the rolling stars by night on the hill sides of 

 Mesopotamia, and sold his fleeces and his herds in the marts of Nine- 

 vah and Babylon. 



