ORGANIZATION AMONG FARMERS. 



AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY HON. R. E. TROWBRIDGE AT THE LAN- 

 SING MEETING. 



I have been ihvited to occupy a few minutes of your time in speaking of the 

 " Need of Organization Among Farmers." If it were possible for me to bring 

 Tividly before your minds the extent and beauty, and even magnificence of 

 the exhibition Avbich surrounds us, comparing it with the earlier exhibitions 

 of this society, and then with precision point out the instances and methods 

 in which those who are contributors to this display have been bene6t:ed by 

 those earlier exhibitions, and the very extensive discussions and comparisons 

 of views which have attended them, thus enabling them to make this tiiemost 

 splendid display ever had of the fruits of our justly celebrated fruit State, I 

 should feel that I had thus, perhaps, most completely illustrated the advan- 

 tages of organization among one class of farmers. 



But why may not equally voluabje results follow the more extensive organi- 

 zation of farmers as a whole body? How have these results been achieved? 

 By bringing together those engaged in kindred occupations and pursuits, 

 where, by a comparison of views and methods, with the actual results or prod- 

 iicts on baud to show their superiority or inferiority, a spirit of friendly 

 emulation and desire to excel has been engendered, while at the same time 

 each and every one of these competitors has, with rare magnanimity, been will- 

 ing to unfold to his fellow laborers those secrets by means of which he has 

 been enabled to achieve whatever excellence he has reached. 



The farmer must necessarily be, to a very great extent, isolated from his 

 fellow men, and as a rule, farmers as a class are not men of wealth. Indeed, 

 in most cases it requires the most rigid economy to enable them out of their 

 annual products to feed, clothe, and properly educate their families. Many 

 things which by other classes of society are regarded as almost necessaries of 

 life are to the farmer rarest luxuries. I do not say that the families of farmers 

 do not enjoy as every-day blessings some things which many other people ob- 

 tain only at great cost and look upon as raree njoyments. Still, we undoubt- 

 edly find among farmers less disposition to provide themselves and their fami- 

 lies with those enjoyments which we term intellectual, — books, periodicals, 

 newspapers, and lectures, which have come to be looked upon by other classes, 

 as a necessity of their daily existence, than characterizes almost any other 

 class of people. 



This fact, in connection with the one of isolation before spoken of, exposes 

 them to the danger of standing still while the world around them is all in 



