200 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



only attainable means of education, and as a general rule have been generously 

 supported. These schools are the vestibules to leaniing, as well as the Gibral- 

 tars of liberty. They are peculiarly the growth of tiie farmer's love and care. 



The mighty elements of nature Avith wiiich the farmer deals, and is in con- 

 stant intercourse, cannot leave him unaffected or unconscious of his ministry. 

 Their influence on him is much like that Avliich tlie same nature has on the 

 child, "of subduing and silencing him." We must behold the farmer with 

 respect and admiration when we see how meekly he wears and weilds his power. 

 He is master of every secret of labor; he changes the face of the landscape; 

 he has blessed and made the world better by having lived in it; yet there is no 

 arrogance in his bearing, but a perfect gentleness. 



He stands well in his place on tlie green ball. Plain in manners as in dress, 

 it has been said "he would not shine in palaces; he is absolutely unknown and 

 inadmissible therein; living or dying, he shall not be heard of in them." Yet 

 the lions of the drawing-room, put alongside of him, would shrivel in his pres- 

 ence. He, solid and unexpressive, stamps ineffaceably his own character upon 

 the progress of advancing civilization. He is really a piece of the old nature, 

 "comparable to sun and moon, rainbow and flood," because he is, as all natural 

 persons are, representatives of nature as much as these. He lives in the pres- 

 ence of nature; he knows her vast secrets, and uses them for the good of the 

 world in which he lives. As time and generations come and go, the influence 

 of the farmer will constantly increase, for his calling, now in its infancy, will 

 mature into a perfect system, and lie will add more and more to the sum total 

 of the world's wealth and happiness. 



Perliaps no granite monument will record and perpetuate the noble deeds of 

 his life, but the fields he has cleared, the swamps he has reclaimed, the out- 

 posts of the civilization he has established, the roads and schools and churches 

 he has builded, and the lessons of temperance, virtue, faith, and patience he 

 has taught, will remain as monuments of his life and deeds, more enduring 

 and imperishable than the granite that perpetuates a warrior's fame. No great 

 work in the world is finished by one man, or in one generation. Each in his 

 day performs well the part allotted him, as God gives him to see his work. 

 One digs the trench, another mixes the mortar; one furnishes the material, 

 and another lays block upon block, until the dome crowns with a perfect and 

 radiant finish tlic work of many minds and hearts and hands. Thus will it be 

 in our civilization, until in its perfect ripeness tlie earth shall hold up to its 

 Maker as its finest fruit — "Man." 



R. G. Baird, Secretary State Board of Agriculturd, gave a lecture on "Con- 

 ditions of Successful Farming." (See lectures given at more than one Insti- 

 tute.) 



FOREXOOX SESSION. 

 Hon. Lc Hoy Parker read the following paper on 



ARHOKICULTUEE. 



The subject of planting and cultivating trees for purposes other than tiiat of 

 producing fruit, may be divided into three Jieads : 



