AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS AND INDUSTRIAL FAIRS. £1 



All that has been changed. You now have schools, you have 

 agricultural papers, you have all the means for obtaining infor- 

 mation. These young men should be educated, and they should 

 take this burden upon their shoulders, and say to the world, so far 

 as they can, " These interests shall prosper ; they shall go ahead, 

 for the great advantage that is to be derived from them, in every 

 way." '. 



My friend has •spoken of the value of oxen. Forty or fifty 

 years ago, I was buying young stock in the fall, and sending them 

 to Brighton, in droves. Not long since, to convince my sons of 

 the great change that has taken place, I took down those old 

 books, showing the prices paid for cattle at that time. When we 

 got up to $6.00 for a yearling, we thought it was a big price, and 

 we told the young men, "You must be careful and look sharp." 

 $4.00 and $4.50 was the usual price for yearlings, $6.00 and $9.00 

 for nice two-year olds ; I say " nice " for that time, not now. A 

 nice two-year old would then buy a barrel of flour. The farmer 

 thought if he sold a two-year old heifer for enough to buy a barrel 

 of flour, he was doing a pretty good business, and was perfectly 

 satisfied. How is it now ? I ask the gentlemen in the State of 

 Maine who are telling about "hard times," and saying, "we can't 

 live," how is it ? Take your nice two-year old heifei's, and they 

 sell for forty or fifty dollars. How many barrels of flour can you 

 buy for the price of that nice heifer ? Yealings are sold now 

 for from twenty-five to thirty dollars. Why ? Because they are 

 much bigger than a two-year old was forty years ago. 



That is one instance of impi-ovement, and there has been equal 

 improvement in many other directions ; and shall we not attribute 

 it to what has been done and said, the combination of thought and 

 action, mind acting upon mind ? Here is my friend Goodale ; he 

 is young compared with me, but he has been a father to us in 

 these things, through the reports which he has sent out to us. If 

 he were not here, I would say more than I dare to now. I tell 

 you if we would carry these books right to the doors of all those 

 who disbelieve, and prevail upon them to read and study them, 

 they would come out converted children. We have right here in 

 Androscoggin, many who whine out, " we can't ! we can't !" No 

 man ever did or ever will do anything on this earth who cries out 

 morning, noon and night, " I can't." Say " I can and I will," and 

 you will be pretty sure to accomplish what you undertake. Shall 

 we succeed ? Certainly we shall. 



