126 THE GROUNDSWELL. 



friends wherever he went, and traveled throughout the 

 entire district south-east of the Mississippi, without an un 

 pleasant incident; and, having satisfactorily executed the 

 mission upon which he was sent, he returned North. 



THE GERM-IDEA. 



Feeling deeply the disabilities under which the southern 

 planters labored, from the want of trained labor themselves, 

 from their antecedents, unfitted as yet to direct their affairs 

 with practical efficiency he gave much thought to the means 

 to be employed to rouse the lower classes to an appreciation 

 of the dignity of agriculture, and the necessity of steady 

 work, through which they might make comfortable homes 

 for themselves and their children. 



While at Mobile, Ala., he thought deeply over the subject 

 of practical co-operation by the union of the Agricultural 

 Societies then existing. He knew that these societies were 

 distinct and independent of each other, but he asked himself 

 the question which had so often occurred to other minds, but 

 without result, Why should not the Agricultural Societies 

 co-operate for the general welfare of the farmers of the whole 

 country ? At least, why could not some plan be originated, 

 by which these societies in the South could mutually assist 

 each other in ameliorating the condition of the southern 

 farmers ? 



Continuing to think and to talk upon, this matter, he 

 remembered, that, according to tradition, the tie that binds 

 Mason to Mason had existed from time immemorial; he 

 remembered that the hand of brotherhood had extended 

 with civilization, until now in almost every land, and among 

 nearly all people, the tie was found which bound man 

 to man as brethren religion, honor, and manhood being 



