232 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



soil. And every good man in society, will certainly lend 

 us his aid to accomplish so desirable an object. The 

 first step to be taken by those most actively engaged in 

 this work, must be to gain the confidence of that class 

 of society that we would benefit. The next, to raise the 

 standard of education, and furnish them with the means 

 of improving their minds, by increasing the circulation 

 of agricultural journals among them. — But above all 

 things, to teach them to place more confidence in them- 

 selves. "The farmers and mechanics constitute a very 

 large majority of the population of the State, why could 

 they not elect such men to represent them in their legis- 

 lation, as would favor their cause?" 



"The difficulty in doing this, would be at present, a 

 want of unity and concert." 



Why have you called your Society, "The Union Agri- 

 cultural Society," except it be for this very purpose? 



Until such time, the farmer must look for but little 

 Legislative aid. You must first make the pursuit of agri- 

 culture fashionable, and you will soon find votaries. 



You must task your minds to the greatest effort, to 

 weed out that pernicious blight that has fallen upon the 

 agricultural community — that mania that pervades and 

 fixes a disposition upon the minds of the farmers sons 

 and daughters, to escape from the toil of cultivation of 

 the soil, under the false and fatal delusion that any other 

 employment, or even a life of idleness, is more respectable 

 than that of their fathers. 



Teach them that industry, honesty, and irreproachable 

 moral conduct, is the true standard of respectability. 



Wealth, dressed in silk and broadcloth, does not create 

 worth. And here let me remark, that the same false no- 

 tions of respectability, have produced ruinous conse- 

 quences to the farmer, in the article of dress. How few 

 of us are to be seen now-a-days, in a good substantial 

 homespun coat. How many sheep, let me ask, are now 

 within the limits of this Society? With a soil, unsur- 

 passed in the world, in suitableness for flax and hemp, 



