LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT INSTITUTES. 357 



been a grand success. The verse of the English poet is unfortunately too 

 trite to quote, but true it is that intelligent, independent farming communities 

 should be the pride as they are the power and safety of the country. And 

 especially will a large class, such as I have described, -who, by their birth, 

 their lives, and their fortunes are identified with both the labor and the 

 capital of the country, do much to counteract the baleful effects of vast wealth 

 and political power upon republican institutions." 



Such suggestive paragraphs as these open a wide field for reflection on the 

 conditions and influence of success worth striving for, and which is not to be 

 measured by real estate standards or market estimates. " Man shall not live 

 by bread alone." 



I am one of those who believe that agriculture will reach its highest condi- 

 tion in this fair land of ours, in these United States. The great assistance we 

 are receiving from our scientific workers ; the help we must receive from our 

 agricultural schools ; the recognition we are sure to receive from the govern- 

 ment if we demand it; the genius of our free institutions which gives every 

 ■one who will the opportunity to own a farm; our comparative freedom from 

 rents and taxes ; all tend to put our farmers, with their enterprise and intel- 

 ligence, in a far better condition for advancement than are those of the old 

 world. Unhappy tax and rent-ridden Ireland, whose people have been driven 

 to desperation by her wrongs ; but little less unhappy England, whose farmers 

 rent nearly all the land they cultivate ; the severally taxed people of conti- 

 nental Europe, whose toilers have so many useless and expensive scions of 

 nobility to support, together with an immense army of non-producers, are not 

 promising places for the advent of the millennium of agriculture, which I 

 €xpect will come. We must look with alarm at all tendencies to create great 

 landed estates. Every one who has the means has also the right to invest in 

 land, and it is undoubtedly a safe business venture, but small farms are best 

 for the State — a statement few will deny. They allow better opportunities for 

 schools, churches, and social privileges. Fortunately large farms are not 

 proportionately as profitable as smaller ones, and never will be. Large culti- 

 vated farms have always failed in this respect, and it is hoped they always 

 will. -There are good reasons for this, because in farming all the details, of 

 which there are many, must be under the eye and judgment of the owner to 

 secure success. 



In the millennium of agricultural industry, every farmer must cultivate the 

 land he owns, and own the land he cultivates, and literally "sit under his own 

 vine and fig tree." 



"While I plead for continued advancement, for greater progress, I cannot 

 forget the pioneer agriculturists of Macomb county. You all know them and 

 •of them. How much of toil and privation they endured and suffered, you 

 have heard from them or suffered and endured with them. Macomb is alto- 

 gether an agricultural county, and owes what she is to the energy and enter- 

 prise of her farmers. They have done their work well. It took brave hearts 

 and strong hands to come to the wilds of Michigan half a century ago, and 

 hew from the forest a home and farm. They were men and women of strong 

 minds and determined wills. No generation to succeed them with all their 

 opportunities and all their facilities, will do better than they; never in the 

 material progress of the county will there be a period when she will advance 

 faster than in their day. 



History may not record all their names, but their deeds remain engraved on 

 the face of nature, ever reminding us of energy, industry, and virtue; with a 



