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your attention to me, to perpetuate the pleasure you have already re- 

 ceived ? Who can look upon these beautiful specimens of grain and 

 roots, and rich and juicy fruits, and other vegetables, mostly the products 

 of our own county, and not receive from them lessons that no human, 

 voice can utter ? Who can examine these improved plows, and harrows, 

 planting, tilling, harvesting, and threshing machines, and other agricul- 

 tural implements, each the embodiment of the experience and thought 

 of many years, and not feel a pleasure Vv'hich words must strive in vain 

 to heighten ? What need then, of a speech ? It is because you would 

 have an expression in language, necessarily inadequate, of the spirit and 

 purpose and benefit of this great annual gathering ? Pardon me, if I 

 enter upon this duty with diffidence. Pardon me, if I insist 

 that the natural emotion of a thoughtful man, awakened by such 

 a scene is absolutely unutterable, especially when we reflect that less 

 than fifty years ago, just where we see now collected stupendous expo- 

 nents of man's power, beautiful exhibitions of his skill, and thousands 

 of the citizens of a properous and Christian people, no other display of 

 human ingenuity could have been found than the tomahawk and bow 

 and arrow, smoothened by usage, no other voice heard than that of the 

 wild beasts, or wilder savages. 



With such a scene before me, I will not spend many moments in at- 

 tempting to show the usefulness of the farmer. Upon this, much has 

 been said unnecessarily, for no man is thoughtless enough to deny it. 

 Much,t'oo, has been said upon this subject, extravagantly and falsely, for 

 the farmer is not the only useful man in society. The greater part of 

 the produce of the soil must be cooked before it is eaten, but the culi- 

 nary process is not farming. Grain must be ground before it is con- 

 sumed, but the miller is not a farmer. Wool and cotton and flax must 

 be cleansed and carded, and spun and woven, and shaped and joined, 

 btfore their use, but manufacturing and tailoring are not farming. Man 

 cannot live by bread alone, for the tools with which he labors, for his 

 carriages and clothing, his newspapers and books, and his luxuries, more 

 of which he can now command than kings of ancient times, the farmer 

 is as dependent upon other men as other men are upon him. It would 

 be a plunge into barbarism, and would reduce the population of the na- 

 tion to the barbarian standard, both in numbers and condition, to deprive 



