FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 209 



Report of Mr. Rice, chairman of committee on exhibits, was accepted 

 and adopted. 



THE FARMERS' CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY. 



EX-GOV. CYRUS G. LUCE. 



I might say that agriculture furnishes the basis of the nation's pros- 

 perity, and go on. But it seems to me that I can fasten your attention 

 better, and present it in such a way that it will cling to your memories 

 longer, by going into detail. The newspapers say — it is one of their head- 

 lines — ^'Agriculture is the basis of a nation's prosperity," It is true, but 

 how is it that we furnish the basis and bulk of this nation's prosperity? 

 Well, now, I am going to illustrate in this way: Society is a great part- 

 nership concern; it embraces all the interests of all the people in this 

 great country. Seventy millions of us are in partnership in running the 

 race of life. Each is supposed to contribute something to the partner- 

 ship. It is a joint stock company we are engaged in, and we all are 

 stockholders. 



Now the farmers contribute a large share of this stock, I apprehend 

 there will be a variety of opinions in relation to how much of this stock 

 belongs to the farmer. How much to the welfare, how much to the 

 security, how much to the wealth, do the farmers contribute, of these 100 

 shares? I am going to be modest in my claim, and say to you that the 

 agriculture of America contributes 60 per cent of this stock. Sixty per 

 cent of the capital is raised through the faith and industry of the farmers 

 — wrung from the brown soil. Let us see where it goes. What is the 

 first great need of humanity? The first essential of life itself? It is 

 food, I took dinner at a wonderfully fine hotel in Detroit a little while 

 ago. There was everything on that table that could tempt the appetite 

 of a human creature, meats, vegetables, breads, fruits. Every single one 

 of these was a farmer's contribution, which had grown on the farm, 

 somewhere. What is the next essential to human life and its enjoy- 

 ment? We wear clothing to protect us from the cold or from the heat, and 

 for adornment. Let us start with the wool; that is the most essential 

 point. Some men ought to be ashamed to mention wool or sheep, but 

 after all it is an agricultural contribution, and we contribute it under 

 great difficulties. Or perhaps you wear cotton. That is also a 

 farmers' contribution. Our brothers in the south till the soil and raise 

 the cotton, from which is made the cotton clothing we wear. Most of 

 us wear a little linen. Linen is essential to society and we must have it; 

 linen is an agricultural contribution. On the plains of Dakota and Kan- 

 sas they are raising flax — hundreds and thousands of acres of flax. An 

 agricultural contribution to society. Well, then, we come along to our 

 shoes — a farmer's contribution. How would we get along if we were 

 compelled to go barefooted, and where would we get material to con- 

 struct boots and shoes of, if farmers didn't contribute it? 



But T will treat it from a broader standpoint now. I will get away from 

 the individual, and see what it is we contribute to the prosperity of the 

 great whole. What it is that has enabled us to glory in the splendor of 

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