MR. CHAMBERLAIN'S ADDRESS. 203 



under the circumstances. We have worked hard enough, and 

 have done constant battle with the circumstances. Our good 

 Mother Nature has not made this a prairie laud nor rich alluvial ; 

 yet her work has been done wisely and well. No prairie nor rich 

 alluvial can bear the varied riches of the mineral and the vegetable 

 world that w.e have here. Nature has here left enough for man to 

 do to compel him to become a thinking and a working being. In 

 this lies the greatest blessing we enjoy. Work enough has been 

 done to show that those who have chosen to stay rather than to 

 emigrate are not totally demented — to show you that lands here 

 are honest and generous — that homes may here be made and main- 

 tained — that daily food, and the comforts and blessings attendant 

 on a good degree of civilization, are here attainable. 



The Board meeting the farmers here, and bringing together a 

 delegation from all parts of the State, is a step that partakes a lit- 

 tle still of the experimental. Under our present plan of organiza- 

 tion, we have held two meetings, both in cities, both resulting in 

 a degree of success equal, perhaps, to a reasonable expectation. 

 Here for the first time you come out into the open country — to the 

 farmers and the farms, beyond and outside of formal corporations. 

 No Mayor or other dignitary to meet you on the boundary with 

 attentions polite. We have but little to offer you — little to set 

 before you. While we tender you the little we have, we do it in 

 simple manner, without formality, for we are a plain people. We 

 accord to you the largest liberty of action and of speech. We 

 grant j'ou the freedom of all the village we have, of all our farms, 

 our work-shops, of our widest wood-lots, broadest lakes, and big- 

 gest rocks. Your coming here is an event with our people that 

 we are proud to honor — one long to be remembered. 



To you, Mr. President, and particularly to you Mr. Secretary, 

 they have long been accustomed to look for their annual lessons 

 in agriculture, till they have come to honor and to venerate you. 

 Your associates in the Board, who are named after you because 

 they have done this service through a less number of consecutive 

 years, they look upon as men not here by blind chance ; that 

 you are here as men of character and worth in your several 

 counties^-competent at home and abroad to instruct in agriculture 

 and the arts connected therewith. You bring with you delegates 

 from Farmers' Clubs and Agricultural Societies, and leading 

 farmers from distant parts of the State. You bring with you 

 the leading practical teacher of our sister State of Connecticut — 



