MISCELLANEOUS PAPEKS. 415 



raised. One of tliem would eat througli a twenty foot corn crib and then squeal 

 for more. 



But passing from this branch of the subject, allow me to submit that agricul- 

 turists do not need to entertain any class of opinions or any jealousies of the 

 various otlier industries that exist in every well organized community. As all 

 lawful pursuits are so interwoven together and are so inseparably connected, as 

 a rule when one prospers all prosper. All depend upon the products of tlie 

 farm, and all aid the farmer in furnishing a home market for his surplus, and 

 without the prospect of a remunerative market there will be poor encouragement 

 for the labor bestowed beyond the amount required for your own consumption. 

 The hope for gain in all branches of business is the motive power to human 

 industry, and applies alike to all tlie occupations of life. I am aware that farm- 

 ers apparently receive lower rates of gain tlian the merchant or manufacturer, 

 but when you consider the certainty and security of their calling, the comfort- 

 able support of their families which the farm furnishes, you have no reason to 

 complain. As a rule they live well but frugally, labor faithfully, and at the end 

 of the year the balance remaining shows the profit of their 3-ear's business. But 

 beyond this, if properly attended the farm is gradually improving, and its value 

 in the market is increasing as the country grows older and more densely popu- 

 lated. Most of the wealth that exists among the middle classes is that which 

 results from the increased value of the land. Then let the farmer do all that 

 he can to support all other legitimate industries and patronise the mechanics, 

 merchants, and manufacturers in his neighborhoood, thereby building up a 

 home market for his products, while at the same time he has the advantage of 

 the open markets of the commercial world. There is no necessity of your forming 

 yourselves into close corporations to avoid the middlemen or any other class, 

 and when the farmers undertake to be their own merchants, manufacturers, and 

 mechanics, they make a mistake and are generally the losers. Competition is 

 sharp enough in all these different branches of business, and especially in com- 

 munities as old as this, so that you need have no fear of being compelled to pay 

 an extravagant price for the articles you wish to buy or the work you wish to 

 have done. Live and let live should be the farmer's motto, and not begrudge 

 the merchant or mechanic the pittance he may make out of your custom, or 

 get irritated because at the end of the year he should invite vou to pav your 

 l»ills. 



I can and do highly appreciate the advantages of agricultural societies, where 

 you meet to exhibit your stock, your agricultural products and improved imple- 

 ments of husbandry ; to consult together, and to compare views on all things 

 connected with your calling. But I regret to see that in many cases these fairs 

 have run into an exhibition of horse racing, which destroys all their value for 

 the legitimate purposes for which they are organized, and brings together a class 

 of small gamblers and petty thieves that disgrace the society, debauch the mor- 

 als of our young men, and apparently make the honest yeomanry the patrons of 

 trickery and fraiid. The fact that your society prohibits this, and confines 

 itself to the legitimate objects of a farmers' fair, induced me to accept your 

 invitation to make this address. 



Whilst your calling requires you to be frugal and industrious and temperate^ 

 there is nothing connected with it that justifies you in being stingy or parsi- 

 monious, either to your families or to others. You must recollect that tho 

 good housewife has the hardest task of the two ; that she is isolated in a large 

 degree from the society of neighbors ; that her tasks are never done, and as a 



