78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



consumers call aloud upon the producer for the necessaries of 

 life. 



In.closing, I would have the farmers remember that, while much 

 is being done to improve their condition, the}- have a duty to jxt- 

 form in return. They ought to communicate their knowledge to 

 others. " All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full." 

 If the man who makes two blades of grass grow where only one 

 grew is a benefactor, then has he done more if he tell his neighbor 

 how to do it. I think too much can not be said in favor of meetings 

 like the present, where topics of such vital importance are so lull}- 

 discussed. The object of exhibitions and fairs, is to focialize the 

 productions of a town, or county, or State, that the}- may be seen 

 at a glance. So the object of these meetings is to focalize the ideas 

 of a people, that each may have the benefit of the whole. 



If Maine is not a paradise for farmers, it is a grand place to raise 

 men and women in. How nobly did her sons respond to the bugle 

 call when the countr}- was in danger, and how nobly did thi y stand 

 as a wall of fire between us and death ! Let us then rememl)er that 

 we are not onl}- farmers but men. Integral parts of the great family 

 of man ; and it is ours, or it ma}- be, to do something for the race. 

 Others have labored, and you have entered into these labors, is as 

 true in the natural as moral vineyard. It is a question of no small 

 moment. Shall we lay down this work where we took it, or shall 

 progress be written upon every page of our history? A light under 

 a bushel is safe from wind and weather. Init upon whom does it 

 .shine; whose path does it illumine? In the language of an English 

 writer, "I had rather stand out upon some head-land and hold up 

 the light that the storm tossed mariner may be guided to the port in 

 safety." I remember one little incident in the lite of Robinson 

 ■Crusoe. One day on going to his beach he found human foot prints 

 in the sand Not a human form had he seen for years ; no human 

 sound had greeted his ear, until he had well-nigh lost the sound. 

 Do we wonder he became excited, and that he was terribly frightened 

 when he found they were made by savages. 



In a little while others will be tracing the foot prints we have 

 made on the sands of time ; shall they be savage foot prints ? Kather 

 let us do what we can that every farm house may be a lighthouse, and 

 every farmer a living epistle. 



