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mer needs. From boyhood to the grave, in all ranks and professions, a 

 desire to excel in the business or occupation chosen, is the chief cauae of 

 success. Every good farmer must dehght in a fine crop — in fine cattle,, 

 sheep, and fields, and will prize every excellence of an agricultural na- 

 ture. The comparison, fairs of this kind enable us to make, shows that 

 others excel us in some things ; and as^nothing would be more gratify- 

 ing than to have the best, a spirit of competition is awakened, and re- 

 doubled efforts aie made to push forward in the race of agricultural im- 

 provement Nothing, perhaps, better illustrates this principle, than to 

 notice the effect that a farmer, who has an excellent dwelling, neat and 

 comfortable outbuildings, the best stock or the best crops, has upon his 

 neighbors. Step by step they follow after, onward and upward, until 

 that farmer's genial influence difi"uses itself for miles. 



As coals of fire heaped together glow with a more intense and bril- 

 liant heat, so will the fervor and zeal of our farmers be promoted by 

 ihis coming together. It is the manifestation of interest and sympatliy 

 among those having kindred pursuits and similar aims ; and the wider 

 this interest in each other, and in agricultural improvements, extends, 

 in that very proportion will agriculture be advanced. 



Here is proclaimed the dignity and importance of labor. Who can 

 look around to-day upon the unnumbered evidences of thrift, improve- 

 ment and plenty here dL'^played, and know that all this is the direct re- 

 sult of the creative power of toil, without acknowledging in its full 

 force that "labor bringeth bles.sings?" It is the fanner who creates, 

 who feeds, and sustains the rest of mankind. 



The State Fair at Detroit, last week, furnished examples of agricultu- 

 ral excellence which will send their teachinors to the most remote comer 

 of the State. In many respects, the exhibition this year was no mark- 

 ed improvement upon some of its predecessors, yet enough was exhibit- 

 ed to place Michigan among the fiist agricultural States. As a wheat 

 raising, wool growing, fruit and vegetable producing State, we have, ac- 

 cording to our population, no superior, and scarcely an equal. The Fair 

 was in all respects creditable to the State, and its agricultural growth, 

 and enforced the perpetual truth of the beautiful motto of our coat of 

 arms: Si quceris amosnam peninsrdam, circumspice. "If you seek a 

 pleasant peninsula, look around you." 



