FAllMERS' INSTITUTES. 357 



taste for improvcuiont, in cleaving and cultivating tiic soil, in tlie improvement 

 of farm builuings, in experimenting with new and costly seeds, in showing the 

 advantages to be derived from drainage, and by introducing new and superior 

 breeds of horses, cattle, sheej), swine, and poultry? Do not these men experi- 

 ment for the good of their neighbors? Are we not indebted to them for the 

 improvement of horses, in cows, in swine, indeed all our domestic animals, and 

 also for new varieties of fruits and vegetables which have added to man's hap- 

 piness and very largely to the wealth of the world? 



But few farmers in a new country can afford to purchase thoroughbred 

 stock, and while they may possess animals of superior merit, yet they cannot 

 afford to experiment with such, through several generations, in order to develop 

 and establish their superior qualities. Even were they anxious to do this, they 

 could not by the use of some scrub found running on the highways. All intel- 

 ligent breeders admit that only by the use of some thoroughbred sire, likely to 

 transmit his good qualities to his offspring, can the farmer hope to improve his 

 stock. We are indebted to fancy farmers, who have devoted a life of labor, 

 mone}', and love to their work, and who as successful breeders have brought 

 our domestic animals up to their present standard of excellence, and to the 

 same class must we look for the introduction of the best types of those animals 

 into this part of the country. 



I should be pleased, did time permit, to direct your attention to the impor- 

 tance of agriculture. That, however, has been done by others. At the present 

 time, when our manufacturing interests are not in so prosperous a condition as 

 they were some years since, when the conviction is pretty general that profits 

 in the immediate future are uncertain, should iiot the claitus of asfriculture 

 receive more attention at our hands ! 



One disastrous season, that would close our mills and salt works, would 

 throw at least four t'nousand people out of employment in this county, nearly 

 all of whom, and many of them with families, are dependent upon their daily 

 labor for support. These men could not find other employment. Think, 

 therefore, for a moment, of the suffering and want which would fall upon 

 hundreds of families in our midst; one-quarter the entire population of our 

 county would be directly affected thereby, and the result would inevitably bring 

 bankruptcy to two-thirds of our manufacturing and business men ; houses and 

 stores would become vacant, and every foot of real estate in this city would 

 depreciate fifty per cent. Our manufacturing interests are of very great im- 

 portance, but we are altogether too dependent upon two branches, really upon 

 one, as the manufacture of salt cannot be successfully carried on apart from 

 the manufacture of lumber. 



Let nie call your attention to another important fact in this connection. 

 Dr. Kedzie has called your attention to the fertility of our soil. The wheat 

 map of Michigan shows the largest yields to be in the newer counties. We to- 

 day stand where once stood the older counties, in the yield of wheat, and may 

 we not find that as we grow older, the counties still north will in turn out-rank 

 us. It is not the county which to-day possesses the greatest fertility, Avhich will 

 retain its rank as the most productive. Other causes will operate. If we hope 

 to continue to raise forty bushels of wheat per acre, we must return something 

 more than seed to the soil. Land should be tilled, so as to increase rather than 

 diminish its fruitfulness. The yield of wheat must, in great part, depend upon 

 the number of cattle kept. To grow wheat successfully stock must be kept. 

 Upon the one item of manure, unsavory as it may seem to our nostrils, de- 

 pends our continued large yields of wheat, corn, etc., and thus our agricultural 



