306 STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTUKE. 



every farmer in our country and urge tliem to educate their sons for the farm. 

 Give your smart boys an agricultural education and they ■will stay with you. 



It takes smart boys to make good farmers. The idea that farmers do not 

 need to think much, and that they have an easy vocation, is false ; for nowhere 

 is there a field so broad, and so little worked over. Other professions take up 

 only one particular line, — ours embraces all. 



In conclusion let me say, — let us go to work earnestly to improve our soil, 

 our stock, and our homes, and we will succeed better than our most sanguine 

 expectations. 



Where there's a will there's a way. 



THE PEOSPECTIVE BENEFITS OF THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



AN ADDKESS DELIVERED AT THE FARMER'S INSTITUTES HELD 



AT ARMADA, EOCHESTER, AND COLDWATER. 



BY E. G. BAIED, SECRETARY OF THE STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



'We have recently entered upon the centennial or one hundredth year of our 

 national existence. I have never seen but one individual who had lived a hun- 

 dred years, although I see from the recently published census for 1874 there 

 are 18 males 100 years old or over in this State. Probably of the 4,772 females 

 who are reported as 75 and over, a few may have reached their hundredth year. 

 The census, with a modesty that amounts to a defect, has not chosen to disclose 

 the age of those matrons so far advanced in life. Perhaps it was feared that it 

 might endanger tlieir matrimonial prospects. If such were the case we have no 

 fault to find. The life of a nation, however, is a very different thing from the 

 life of an individual. The centennarians whom Ave may, though rarely, meet, 

 are bent under the infirmities and decrepitude of years, whereas our nation, at 

 this its first centennial, has hardly cast aside the swaddling bands of its infancy. 

 It is very remarkable, in view of the vast progress which has been made during 

 the past hundred years, that there will undoubtedly be some who shall witness 

 its centennial celebration whose birth antedates the Declaration of Independence. 

 I think, however, we had better try to attend the celebration at Philadelphia 

 this year, as we may possibly not be here when the next centennial comes round. 



As it is proposed to celebrate the one hundredth year of our national exist- 

 ence by an international exhibition which Avill, in all probability, surpass in 

 magnitude anything of the kind Avliich has preceded it ; and as a vast amount 

 of money must of necessity be expended on the enterprise, it may be Avell for us 

 to ask Avhat is likely to be accomplished by it, and whether the benefits result- 

 ing will be such as to justify so vast an undertaking. With regard to these 

 results we can speak Avith some degree of certainty, as this is not the first inter- 

 national exhibition. The experiment has been several times repeated since 

 Great Britain twenty-five years ago erected the Crystal Palace in London, and 

 invited other nations to exhibit Avithin its Avails the products of their Avealth, and 

 enterprise, and skill ; and the nations that participated in that and subsequent 

 exhibitions carried aAvay from them more practical AA'isdom than centuries 

 would have evoh'ed Avithout some such opportunities having been presented. 



