210 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



regard to the future conditions of human life. Some new 

 element may come in quite out of our line of data, and the 

 problem be solved in a way we n.ever thought it could be. 

 In fact, that which we reckon as sure to take place not only 

 often fails to come, but the exact opposite may appear. As 

 an illustration, I remember when my own town burdened 

 itself with a permanent tax to aid in building a railroad. 

 The argument used with the farmers to secure their votes 

 for the measure was, that railroads must burn a great deal of 

 wood, and so the value of every woodlot on the hillsides 

 would be largely increased. All this seemed to be conclu- 

 sive ; no one thought of doubting such statements : and for 

 a time the railroads bought wood, and the good time for 

 woodlots seemed to be at hand, when, all at once, the rail- 

 roads began to burn coal, so they did not wish to buy wood ; 

 and more than this, they began to bring in coal to take the 

 place of wood, so that the woodlots were not worth as much 

 as they were before the railroads came. The taxes on the 

 bonds had to be paid all the same. 



When the war abolished slavery, we at the North were 

 glad to see slavery go ; but we almost all thought our su- 

 premacy as a nation in cotton-raising was gone. The "free 

 negro would not plant cotton," it was said ; or, if he planted 

 it, he would be too lazy to gather it at the proper time. 

 Well, we see more cotton raised at the South than ever 

 before. It is picked and baled in better condition than 

 ever before. All the world has to do, is to say how many 

 millions of bales it wants, and the negro that we thought 

 would not raise cotton at all will sell the world all it 

 wants. 



Such cases might be multiplied ; and therefore, when pic- 

 turing the farmer's home of the future, we must remember 

 that we live in an age of invention and discovery, and some 

 new element may come in that we at present have no thought 

 of. We must, however, take all the known elements, and 

 do the best we can with them. It seems certain that a very 

 large proportion, probably a majority, of all the people, must 

 continue to be engaged in agriculture. There must be food 

 for all, and such variety of food as will call for a great 

 amount of hand-labor ; and there must be material for cloth- 

 ing, — wool and cotton. These come from the field. 



