3Y0 



The husbandman is either developing new faets in agriculture, add- 

 ing new light to the science, enriching the soil, multiplying her pro- 

 ductions, or he labors only for a bare subsistence, and thus wastes his 

 energies, buries his talent in the earth, and makes one of that number, 

 who, in the foolishness of their hearts, declare there is nothing more 

 for them to do, or leara. 



But, my hearers, the very existence of our Society ; the gathering to- 

 gether of the agriculturists and mechanics of our county, upon this oc- 

 casion ; the fine aiTay of stock, grains, fruits, vegetables and implements 

 of husbandry, which greet the eye, all afford ample testimony that you 

 are not of this slothful and deluded number. Agricultui-al Societies 

 are springing up in every county of every State in the Union. State 

 Agricultural Societies are being oi'ganized. State Legislatures, feeling 

 the necessity of fostering these important nui-series of agriculture and 

 the arts, are lending legislative aid. 



These facts assure me, that the interest felt by the American people 

 in this ennobling science, is not abated or at the stand-still point, but is 

 m^iving steadily and surely on. And who, I ask, should not feel an 

 interest in the tillage of the soil, and in its productions ? 



Certainly, every one who eats bread, who wears or uses cotton, 

 woolen or flax, is directly interested. The products of the soil sustain 

 ahke the rich and the poor, the king and the subject ; their flocks and 

 herds, all are dependent upon it. 



Then, if a successful tilling of the soil be a matter of such vita^ im- 

 portance to a people, should not that people, by every means in their 

 power, encourage labor m every department of husbandry, systematize 

 its minutest particulars, and place it first on the list of sciences ? Such, 

 every candid mind will admit to be the duty of the American farmer, 

 such is the duty of the farmers of Cass county. 



Instead of abandoning, as no longer worthy of attention, that soil 

 from which he has for years derived a comfortable subsistence, and 

 perhaps a competency, to seek a home still farther west, where the vir- 

 gin soil has never been disturbed by the plow and the harrow, it would 

 be far better for the country, and in the end better for himself, if he 

 would look once more to the land he has impoverished by inconsiderate 

 farming, and see if there is not still a chance to renovate it, to add to 

 its productiveness, and to his own character as a tiller of the soil. 



