242 BOAED OF AGRICULTUEE. [Jan., 



See the average corn crop of Tennessee and Kentucky — twenty- 

 one and twenty four bushels; of rye, five, or seven, or eight bush- 

 els; of wheat, six or seven, or eleven or twelve bushels. 



My figuring is careless of fractions, becavise we don't expect 

 accuracy from a farmer. When we talk of five bushels as the 

 average rye product to the acre, of a great, central American 

 state, we understand that it is rather small, but yet that five 

 bushels of rye will make a good deal of bread, and such a crop is 

 better than nothing. But in reflecting what an average means, 

 we shall perceive that some growers had more, and by so much 

 more as they had others must have had less — sometimes scarcely 

 getting their seed back throughout whole counties and sections of 

 these comparatively new states. The census average may be a 

 great comfort to the speculator, while it indicates a mighty hard 

 scrabble for the people. 



Still, we are paying more western rye for German potash than 

 the German peasant can aSord to, and that is what he comes over 

 here to see about. It makes Connecticut bushes laugh at eastern 

 capital to see the peasants and potash going west. 



In a matter cognate with soil depletion — for in any great care- 

 less gathering there will be corresponding heedless waste — in the 

 pollution of its streams, by the stop-watch in race history, the 

 United States has no competitor. For speedy nastiness by whole- 

 sale and retail, the American people can "take the cake." 



Now, mind you, I do not stand here making these statements as 

 one without hope. The rapidity with which we have made changes 

 for the worse is one of the elements of our salvation. The mis- 

 chief has been done by living men before living witnesses. Every 

 good housekeeper knows that a young kitten or puppy, caught in 

 the act, can be broken of its dirty tricks, and so, please God, can a 

 young nation. 



If once we made frugality and cleanliness the fashion, and a 

 strict matter of national business, Columbia, now sitting forlorn in 

 her own poverty and filth like a bedraggled harlot, as the old 

 reformers would say, might arise regenerate, glorious in white 

 raiment, like an angel of goodness among the nations. 



Convince our strong men — our working milhons, the salt of the 

 earth — of the vital errors of our present course, and the energy of 

 our restoration may surpass every historical record in grandeur, 

 as the victories of peace surpass the triumphs of war. 



