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■tnnmcipai debi of nome twelve oj fifteen tLoasaDcl dollars. Our t'ai-rn- 

 ers, many of them, had anticipated all they could raise for a long time to 

 come, while collecting ofBcers were eating up the very vitals of commu- 

 nity. We had no active cash capital — no circulating medium amongus. 

 In short, everything at that time looked dark and dreary. I then urged 

 as a means of liquidating that indebtedness, the importance of taking 

 hold of the work with a resolution to shake off the load, accompanying 

 works with faith, followed up by imyielding perseverance, and I assured 

 you at that time, if this was done, the work was accomplished. I do 

 not claim that a reformation has been effected as the result of my ad- 

 vice on that occasion, but I ask you to mark the contrast which baa been 

 produced in this County in the short space of three years. In that pe- 

 ■ riod we have nearly paid off our public debt, while at the same time, 

 we have erected and nearly completed a good substantial Court House, 

 with a Jail, and plenty of rooms for all our public offices, at an expense 

 of over $6,500. The School House has been erected in almost every 

 place in the County, where needed. Our Poor House and Jail have 

 become tenantless. Our individual liabilities have become reduced to 

 almost nothing. Collecting officeis have been compelled to seek some 

 other business for a livelihood. The public highways are becoming 

 passable. We have something of a market at home, and good mai- 

 kets abroad, with decent roads to get there. We have many farmere 

 among us entirely out of debt, lords of the soil they occupy, and mo- 

 ney at interest. We now raise our own fruit ; have a plenty of cattle, 

 sheep, horses and swine to sell, and find plenty of buyei-s, with money 

 iin hand, to buy. We now have, not only a wheat harvest, but a wool 

 harvest; and for every other surplus production, we can receive the mo- 

 ney at our own doors. This great change, which has but faintly been 

 sketched, has been brought about in the short space of three years, since 

 the first Annual Exhibition of this Society, at Corunna, in 1850. Here 

 is much to encoui-age. In the short space of three years next to come, 

 with the same exertion, we may safely anticipate a still greater change. 

 We say, then, in the first place, as a means of our continued prosperity 

 as a Society, and as a community seeking the same object, let us hold 

 on to what we have already attained. Lot there be no murmurings 

 among the different members of this Association as were witnessed in 

 the camp of the children of Israel, because each could not have hi« 



