86 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



corn has to weigh a few more pounds in the bushel, and 

 yield a few more bushels to the acre, in order to be equal 

 to a competitor s of the opposite party. Black Republican 

 butter, though up to the Orange County stamp, stands no 

 sort of a chance beside an inferior article, if it was made 

 from Democratic cream. And because a few men carry 

 their prejudices to this extent, and try to buy votes to get 

 themselves into the legislature, by this petty trade in 

 premiums at the fall fairs, there are some addled enough 

 to believe that all our Society affairs are managed upon 

 this principle. 



Our Hookertown folks did not go up to the annual meet 

 ing last year, thinking that the Society had got along where 

 it would take care of itself. But things do not take care 

 of themselves in this world. If you do not plant hoed 

 crops, briars and thistles will grow. If the friends of an 

 Agricultural Society do not follow it up and shape its pol 

 icy, it will go wrong. We have no right to put our hand 

 to the plow and look back. If we do, we are in very poor 

 business to grumble that others stand at the plow tail in 

 our place. About the meanest thing a man can do is to 

 grumble. If he can t help it, grumbling will do no good. 

 If he can, he ought to go to work and stop chafing. 



I had to work about a month, before the meeting, rid 

 ing round and talking with grumbling people, before I 

 could get things into the right shape. I have always ob 

 served that there was great virtue in talking. If you 

 have a good cause and keep it before the people persever- 

 ingly, you are certain^ to carry it in time. I knew if we 

 could have a full meeting, from all parts of the County, 

 and talk matters over, we could come to a good under 

 standing, and make the Society efficient in doing its ap 

 propriate work, which I take to be horse raising and other 

 kind of growth, and not horse racing, and razing of in 

 dustry and good morals. The people who had the man 

 agement last year, followed their own tastes without mean- 



