108 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



In this annual harvest home,- this peaceful festival, where labor is 

 dignified and ennobled, and industry is crowned king, let us remem- 

 ber that the ultimate object for which we toil and strive is to build 

 up an enduring civilization, and to exalt and embellish civilized life. 

 To do this we must begin at the home. Every decade we take the cen- 

 sus of this nation, and each succeeding census shows that the cities 

 and towns gave population in a greater ratio than rural districts. 

 The significance of this is that the rural spirit in our country is dying 

 out, and that the better social advantages of the cities is attracting 

 an undue projjortion of our population to them, to the injury of 

 agricultural pursuits. This should not be so, and would not be, if 

 more attention was given to the beautifying and adornment of coun- 

 try homes, and entrancing of social and intellectual advantages of 

 country life. The organization of the Order of Patrons of Hus- 

 bandry has done much to encourage a rural spirit, and to elevate the 

 occupation of farming and enhance the sociability and unity of 

 country life. That Order has also contributed much to combine the 

 agricultural classes, and confer a higher social dignity upon the occu- 

 pation of farming. Under this genial climate, and amid the natural 

 3eauty of our scenery, where every flowering plant will bloom and 

 everj^ fruit ripen; where winter comes only to clothe the hills with 

 verdure, and summer covers the plains with golden harvests and 

 purple fruit, and autumn ushers in the spring, the occupation of 

 farming will ever be attractive and ennobling. Permit me to indulge 

 the hope that this exhibition of the best products of our fields, our 

 pastures, our orchards, and our vineyards will enhance in the minds 

 of all the blessings and dignity of labor, and the high honor of our 

 calling. We present you here the best results of the skill and the 

 industry of our well ordered people, from the most primitive employ- 

 ment to the highest realm of fine art. We present you the best 

 specimens of the capabilities of the soil and climate of this land of sun- 

 shine and fertility. I convey to j^ou the welcome of the State Board 

 of Agriculture, and sincerely hoping that this exhibition may con- 

 fer upon all who witness it social enjoyment and profitable instruc- 

 tion; that it will encourage industry and skill, by inspiring in us an 

 honorable spirit of emulation, and, above all, energize a patriotic 

 love for our glorious State, I now declare the Twenty-sixth Annual 

 Exhibition of the State Agricultural Society fully open. 



