ent. i : 
Re. might stop here, but as the reason for my faith is here in a nut- 7 
tan shell, I know you will endure a brief recapitulation of the foregoing " 
points: at 
Bt First. Our population is increasing at the rate of nearly three per 
_ cent a year. a 
“Second. Our consumers of agricultural products are increasing at a. Hy 
more rapid rate by far than are the producers. 
> Third. At present we consume ninety ae cent of our agricultuxal 
products. 
Fourth. The average crop producing capacity of our soils is dimin- ai 
ishing in the United States. A 
Fifth. From 1866 to ’86 the area devoted to our leading crops. : 
: increased 127 per cent, while our population increased during this 
beced sixty-nine per cent, and while everything points to the fact “a 
that our arable land is largely occupied, as witness the haste to possess. #3 
_ Oklahoma, and the efforts to reclaim by irrigation the arid regions of 
the west, there appears to be no evidence that our population will not i 
_ steadily increase. ‘ ae 
At present ninety per cent of our products are consumed at home, | 
or ninety-five per cent not counting tobacco and cotton. It scarcely 
appears as a hazardous prediction that within five years, and perhaps 
_ even sooner, the home demand may fully equal the supply of our 
a agricultural products, and then, if they are wise, the farmers of the 
‘ country will be the masters of the situation, and those words of 
Napoleon that “agriculture is the basis and strength of all national 
_ prosperity,” will be recognized as sober truth. 
_ Awaiting then, as I think we may, in confident hope the good time 
Mg so near at hand, what, we may stop to inquire, are the duties of the 
hour; and I would say first, study economy in production. Suppose 
you ask any of the shopkeepers of Geneva whether they know what 
- their nails, the sugar, the cloth which they will sell you cost them, 
_ would they not think you either jesting or recently escaped from Willard 
Asylum? But can our farmers tell these same dealers what their Bi: 
milk, butter, eggs, hay, oats or corn has cost them to produce? Can i 
_ our dairymen tell the actual or relative value of the several members i 
of their herd, which are a source of profit, which pay their way, Ba: 
which are being kept at actual loss? Does the farmer who is draw- 
ing his hay to market reflect that every ton of hay contains of 
ertilizing constituents, as Dr. Goessmann, of Massachusetts, says, 
fr ym five dollars and ninety-three cents to nine dollars and sixty 
\ 
ps 
7, 
pay 
if 
