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in this vicinity, and were gathered in half an hour's talk on the street, and could be multiplied 

 many times by further search. We have purposely left out all those who have inherited any 

 property from any source. 



Then is given a list of successful farmers, from which I extract the 

 few following cases: 



Rodney McDole, of Sugar Grove, commenced work at farming at six dollars a month. Has 

 raised a large family, and is now estimated to be worth sixty thousand dollars. 



Fuller Bowdish, of Blackberry, commenced working at farming at eight dollars a month, is 

 now about thirty-five years old, and worth twenty thousand dollars. 



Ben George, of Sugar Grove, worked three years for one hundred and fifty dollars a year. At 

 the expiration of the term he had saved three hundred dollars, and is now estimated to be worth 

 seventy-five thousand dollars, at the age of fifty-one. 



P. Young worked the first three years of his majority for ten dollars per month, and is now 

 estimated worth from fifty thousand dollars to seventy-five thousand dollars. His brother 

 Frank commenced in the same way, and is worth a like amount. 



Daniel Myers, of Big Rock, worked one year at farming for ten dollars a month, saved one 

 hundred dollars out of his wages, and started on his own hook. Is now fifty-three years old,, 

 and worth fifty thousand dollars. 



David Annis, of Kaneville, father of our present City Judge, commenced his farming career 

 in this country by working for Rodney McDole at haying for seventy-five cenls a day. He 

 strove for independence by getting McDole to trust him for a yoke of oxen, when he went to 

 farming on his own hook. He has now over two thousand acres of land, and is estimated to be 

 worth from one hundred and fifty thousand dollars to two hundred thousand dollars, at the age 

 of sixty-four years. 



William P. West, of our city, worked on a railroad until he had saved one thousand dollars,, 

 when he struck out West and went to farming, and is now worth from one hundred thousand 

 dollars to one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. 



James Eckles, of Bristol, came here twenty years ago without a cent, worked for farm wages, 

 soon commenced on his own hook, and is now thought to be worth from fifty thousand dollars 

 to seventy-five thousand dollars. 



Now, to be sure, these are examples of success in life away over in 

 Illinois; but, Mr. President, the principle holds good here in Cali- 

 fornia ; the principle holds good here in Sonoma and Marin Counties, 

 and I will stake the reputation of this State for big vegetables that 

 you could furnish me with fifty similar cases, verified by your per- 

 sonal experience. 



Then the small amount of wages offered farm hands startles half 

 the unemployed into inactive disgust. Twenty-five or thirty dollars 

 a month for driving a team, twenty-five or thirty dollars a month for 

 slogging away from "early morn to dewy eve" do not seem very 

 much, it is true, but it must be remembered that this wages is out- 

 side of board and lodging. It is, indeed, so much money to be saved, 

 or wasted, according to the character of the recipient. I know it 

 needs patience, grit, and self-denial to cut loose from city associations, 

 and pass through the hard noviciate of devotedness to Ceres and 

 Pomona ; but once the break is made, and the service has become 

 familiar, there is a steady future of quiet content to be counted on. 

 It is not a vague theory, an easily made but unsubstantial promise, 

 that fortune lies in the furrow. With a few acres out of the millions 

 that lie around a pushing man can with industry raise enough to 

 support himself and family, and each year add to his producing 

 capacity until he finally secures a sufficiency. Agriculture may be 

 hard to woo, but she has this superiority over some of her sex — there 

 is no danger of her going back on one as soon as she finds he is hand 

 and heart her own. She does not refuse a man because he comes 

 a-courting in coarse clothes, and does not shrink from the caress of a 

 sun-browned hand. Only she requires constancy, and when that is 

 assured, see how she favors her suitor ; from an exacting mistress she 

 changes placidly into a willing slave; her fellowship is helpfully 



