310 ♦ TRANSACTIONS OF THE KANKAKEE 



a 



ell. Maiden's Blush, and Belmont. Milo Barnard exliibits specimens 

 of Coles Quince. Yellow Ingestre. and Raindel. Sixteen varieties of 

 apples by S. A. Randall, including Bailey Sweet, Savannah. Rhode 

 Island Greening, and Fall Pippin. Mr. Randall also exhil)its a spe- 

 cimen of South American Pampas grass, ten feet in height, also some 

 very fine White Elephant potatoes, one of which weighs twenty- 

 three ounces. Many of the apples in the collections are very tine. . 



The President called for J. L. Clark, essayist, who, owing to a 

 business engagement, was unable to be present, but had sent his 

 essay, which was read by his daughter, Miss Mary Clark. 



FAKMERS. THEIR POSITION SOCIALLY AND POLITICALLY. 



BY J. L. CLAEK. 



That a far greater share of our population is represented by 

 agriculture than by any other branch of industry is j^roven by the 

 census reports: that the general habits of the tillers of the soil are 

 better, more conducive to a higher standard of morality, than any 

 other class, is too well an accepted fact to need any argument to 

 sustain; that the physical health and developement is fully equal to 

 that of any other calling, also needs no argument to uphold. But 

 that by a great majority of the young people farming is not looked 

 upon as a desirable occupation, is too well attested by the overcrowd- 

 ing of the professions and the departments of clerkshi]), the eager- 

 ness with which girls choose husbands from the ranks of almost all 

 other pursuits, of the thousand and one little things that are every 

 day ilung athwart the pathway of all. 



It would seem that if the intellectual development were equal to 

 that of the other classes, that farmers must, in a country where caste 

 is ignored, and where no lord nor prince nor potentate has the pre- 

 rogative to dole out at his will social honors or political preferments, 

 by virtue of equal physical force, equal intellectual strength, a bet- 

 ter morality, and a greater weight of numbers, rise to the top, both 

 socially and politically. And the argument has often been used with 

 seeming force to prove the intellectual inferiority of the average 

 farmer. Still I cannot accept the argument. For that sturdy prac- 

 tical common sense which builds empires and sustains them, all 

 countries have been obliged to draw upon the honest yeomanry, and 

 every draft has been honored when trials have {*ome that have made 

 the heads of wisest statesman and titled lord low in despair, oftimes 

 the plebian has stepped forward to the rescue. 



On what, then, is this charge of inferiority based? 



Let me try and answer. There are among us. as there are 

 among every other class, a lot of blatherskites, whose mouths are al- 

 ways open, whose pens are ever ready, whose sense was never dis- 



