State Agricultural Society. 95 



regard it a source of speculation. Something of this old fashioned senti- 

 ment came over in the May Flower, and got planted on the James River, 

 but in our migrations across the continent has become sadly diluted. It 

 certainly does not now, as then, distinguish the higher classes of society, 

 and if at this day we look for a hearty, genuine love for the land, we 

 shall find it among the humbler classes of emigrants, whose wants have 

 taught them its real value. 



The whole Valley of the Rock River in Wisconsin and Illinois is one 

 of almost unequalled fertility, and within my own remembrance has 

 been twice colonized, first by settlers from New York and New England, 

 the crest of the wave which in receding peopled Michigan (and which to- 

 day makes its moral and mental atmosphere almost identical with those 

 States), and secondly by Germans and Scandinavians. The first came 

 in and took up extensive tracts of land which they cropped year after 

 year with wheat, burning their straw, and returning nothing to the soil. 

 They cut down the spare timber of the openings, and the climate being 

 then considered unfavorable for fruit growing, left nothing in its place. 

 By the time their farms were well fenced, comfortable houses and barns 

 erected, they discovered that the crops were not.as heavy as formerly, 

 there were more frequent droughts, more "chinch bugs; ' many of the 

 pioneers sold out and moved to Missouri, Kansas, and the Pacific Coast. 

 Meanwhile the hardy Norwegian and German emigrants, who coming 

 later, had taken up the less desirable sections of wild land, saving in 

 European fashion every scrap of manure, planting trees and vines, and 

 gathering more closely into communities and neighborhoods, have been 

 able in many cases to buy out these improved American homesteads, 

 until in some locations the entire nationality has been changed, certainly 

 not for the worse, if the accumulated increase o:' population and the value 

 of the land is considered. Wisconsin, Iowa. Minnesota, and more lately 

 Missouri have gained immensely in gaining this home making element. 

 For whatever reason the love of country life, which has been a char- 

 acteristic of our blood and race, has so greatly lessened then, it is 

 greatly to he deplored. While the laboring millions of England stand in 

 an almost menacing attitude before her few hundred landholders, and 

 are forced to emigration as their only resource, our own youth volunta- 

 rily turn away from the modest secure gains of steady industry to the 

 uncertainties of city life and the excitements of speculation. 



How can we bring about a change in this respect and develop a 

 higher sentiment for that which in older lands represents not onl} r a cer- 

 tain amount of money, but social standing, leisure, and culture? 



I believe the only way to do this is to educate our youth, boys and 

 girls, into a respect for those pursuits, to provide liberally for such educa- 

 tion, and to multiply in every possible way the social enjoyments and 

 embellishments of rural life. 



We must take the social nature of man into the account, and not 

 expect our children, at the age when social attractions are the strongest, 

 to dig and delve, and endure the privations which were common under 

 a former condition of things. When I remember how often the grow- 

 ing boy was overworked, the short time he had for study and recrea- 

 tion, the disadvantages with which he entered cultivated society, I do 

 not wonder that the farmer's son turns to other occupations; or that the 

 ceaseless household cares of the farmer's wife, in homes where beauty 

 has not softened the hard outlines of utility, homes without music, 

 books, or flowers, should discourage and disgust her daughters. 



Men have left the farm because the refinements of life, its higher 



