COUNTY REPORTS. 483 



ANNUAL ADDRESS. 



BY BRUCE E. MCCOY, ESQ. 



Mr. President, Ladies and GENTLEMEi? of the Racine 



County Agricultural Society : 



I congratulate you to-day upon this occasion and the results 

 of this meeting. I am heartily glad to see so many competing 

 for the prizes offered by your Society for the promotion of labor 

 and the honored occupation of agriculture — honored by the 

 Philanthropist, whose hopes for the amelioration of the condi- 

 tion of makind are centered in it ; who points it out as the nur- 

 sery of morality and virtue ; in whose ranks are found physical 

 health and strength — honored by the Statesman, who feels its 

 pulse beatstrong with patriotism ; and by Freemen, whose strength 

 is in its arm — honored by the great and the good, the noble and 

 the free, who look to it as the foundation of civilization. 



But there are those, I fear, and those, too, engaged in agricul- 

 ture, who look upon it as an occupation requiring only physical 

 strength in its prosecution. What an error ! We are accus- 

 tomed to revere the memory of the old Grecian and Roman 

 republics for their energy of character and style of thought. 

 So high was the art of tilling the soil considered by the Grecians 

 that they thought every new improvement in implements for 

 tilling, and every new variety of seed discovered, as the imme- 

 diate bounty of their gods. The Romans, in their palmiest days, 

 coDsidered the cultivation of the soil as the very acme of ambi- 

 tion. They thought all the energy of the hero, the skill of the 

 tactician, and the science of the philosopher, might find full 

 scope in the cultivation of one farm. Politics, in the public 

 mind, were as much below agriculture then, as the latter is below 

 the former now. When the Sabines encamped before the city 

 of Rome, the Senate became much alarmed for the public safety, 

 and the course they took to drive off the invaders, was to call 



