6 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



they put on more help and continued to overcome and subdue all 

 obstacles, thus early demonstrating that what could not be done 

 by individual effort might be accomplished by united action. 



Very soon we read of the first exhibition, when the ^''oung men 

 came to exhibit and offer the best of their flocks and fruits. We 

 are also pained to find that in this early history of agricultural 

 exhibitions there were heartburnings and dissatisfaction on ac- 

 count of the awards, thus proving that in this respect at least, if 

 we have not improved upon our ancient predecessors, we have 

 not degenerated. At the same time it furnishes a precedent for 

 the grumblers of our day, which is a far better excuse for them 

 than the grievances, real or fancied, of which they often complain. 

 But to come more directly to the point, it is idle and foolish to 

 attempt, solitary and alone, to accomplish any very great results 

 in the way of aiding or improving our fellow-men. 



The history of the world from the creation of man to the present 

 time is full of instruction upon this point. All the great results 

 which have been achieved by representative men in every age and 

 throughout the world, in religion, philosophy, education, political 

 economy or any of the industrial pursuits, have been achieved by 

 these same representative men by uniting their minds and intel- 

 lects together; thus giving to their enterprise, character, strength 

 and aggressive power, which enable them to command respect 

 and admiration from those veiy men, who, had they acted in- 

 dividually, would have sneeringly called them fanatics. All the 

 bitter feelings of oppression, humiliation and degradation, which 

 in 1175 existed in the hearts of the people of the colonies which 

 now compose these United States, might have continued till now, 

 with the same, yea, with ten-fold more bitterness, and we to-day, 

 have been under the huge paw of the British lion, had not those 

 patriots, in whose hearts was swelling the germ of that liberty 

 and freedom which we now enjoy in full fruition, combined to- 

 gether, and by their glorious "Declaration" of the faith which 

 was in them and the patriotic principles which governed them, 

 assumed a tangible organization, which enabled them to put forth 

 a united and concerted effort, which, being clad in the double 

 armor of earnestness and justice, was invincible. 



So too, all the way along through the history of the industrial 

 world, we find that leading men in eveiy age have associated 

 themselves together, for the purpose of aiding each other and the 

 community at large in more successfully prosecuting their various 



