STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



205 



existence oi" national honor should impel us to resort to the arbitrament 

 of the sword. The blow was heavy, but we have emerged from the eon- 

 test with strength and confidence even greater than when the war began, 

 and with the brightest hopes for the future. Circumstances have changed; 

 a new and better order of things, we believe, has taken place, and we 

 begin to marcli towards the future under promising but different auspi- 

 ces. The gushing sources of our former pi-osperity have not been anni- 

 hilated nor dried up. Our national boundaries embrace the same expanse 

 of domain. We face upon the two great oceans of the w^orld, with over 

 twelve thousand miles of shore line, and a greater extent of inland navi- 

 gation than all Eurojje. We have within these boundaries nineteen hun- 

 dred millions of acres of ai'able. grazing, and mineral lands. Of this vast 

 area there are five hundred millions of acres of the most fertile and pi'o- 

 ductive soil on the globe. The most recent reliable data show that less 

 than two hundred millions of acres are embraced in im])roved farms; 

 showing a balance of over three hundred millions of acres awaiting the 

 creative energy of labor to transform them into the abodes of w^ealth and 

 civilization. It was not unreasonable to suppose that, while recupera- 

 ting from the effects of the wav, we should remain for a time apparently 

 stationar}". But already signs of returning prosperity appear. The 

 statistics of the poi't of New York for the first six months of the present 

 year give clear indications of improvement in the right direction, as will 

 be seen by the following table from the report of the Commissioner of 

 the Department of Agriculture for the mouths of June and July, eigh- 

 teen hundred and sixty-five : 



TOTAL IMPORTS 



Of Dnj C]ton(h and Geiirral Mcrchanth'se at jV^ew York from January first 

 to July fir:it, and Exports at the same place and for the same time. 



18 63. 



1864. 



1S65. 



Total imports 



Total exp'ts, exclusive of sjiecie 

 Total exports of specie 



$90,107,715 

 95.117,505 

 20,587,019 



8129.311,035 

 92.747,942 

 29,208,840 



$70,542,220 

 80,093,722 

 17,988,910 



There are abiindant resources to establisli the belief that our volume 

 of material wealth, as measured by the statistics of eighteen hundred and 

 sixty, is fast returning, and that, too, before we have scarcely time to 

 realize that we are in a state of peace. The indications are truly encour- 

 aging. There is not a shade of doubt that our national debt of three 

 thousand millions of dollars can be borne without feeling the burden to 

 be oppi-essive. I will not pause to argue tlie question whether or not 

 this enormou.s amount can be made to 0j)erate as a national blessing. It 

 is sufficient to know that the faith and honor of the nation are ]:)le(lged 

 to its redemption, that we have abundant means in prosj)ect. and that we 

 are unalterably resolved to keep that faith and use those means till every 

 dollar of the del)t be discharged. 



Would ail individual possessed of large and productive pro])ei'ty, con- 

 sisting of lands, cultivated farms, villages, machine shops, with plenty 

 of dutiful, induS'trious children, skilled in all branches of business, some 



