20 THE OFFICE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY. 



its rights, its interests, its powers and its destiny, and is learn 

 ing how to organize itself in America.&quot; The final organization 

 is far in the future; the germ of it lay far back in the past. No 

 great constructive movement can originate which is not histor 

 ical as well as progressive in its spirit; it must otherwise limit 

 itself to temporary conditions, and a few generations. In order 

 that we may rightly understand the work of our noble order, 

 the Patrons of Husbandry, we need to examine the economy of 

 civilized society, and the relations of agriculture to civilization. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE OFFICE OF AGRICULTURE IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMY. 



&quot;The hand is almost valueless at one end of the arm if there be not a brain at the other 

 end.&quot; Horace Mann. 



MAN AND NATURE AGRICULTURE THE FOUNDATION or INDUSTRY HAW MATE 

 RIALS FIRST STEPS TOWARD MANUFACTURES CIVILIZATION REGARDS ALL THE 

 PROCESSES or EQUAL VALUE THE SOCIAL BODY, ITS DIFFERENT PARTS AND 

 FUNCTIONS How DIVISION OF LABOR INCREASES PRODUCTION How IT BEGETS 

 EXCHANGE OR COMMERCE COMMERCE A CHARGE UPON AGRICULTURE; MAGNI 

 TUDE OF THE TAX HOW THIS ENRICHES THE FARMER MONEY AS A COMMER 

 CIAL AGENT OFFICE OF THE RAILROAD AND OF MONEY TO CHEAPEN EXCHANGE 

 RELATIONS OF AGRICULTURE TO THE PROFESSIONS: To THE GROWTH OF 

 TOWNS: To SCIENCE. 



IN the beginning, man was alone with nature. Without arts, 

 without capital, without implements, he took his sustenance 

 from the bosom of the earth, as the common mother of the 

 race. It was his destiny not only to share the spontaneous pro 

 ductions of nature with his fellow animals, but to search out 

 the physical elements and determine their capabilities; to make 

 the needful combinations to bring into action their productive 

 powers; not only to supply the animal wants, and minister to the 

 pleasure of his organic nature, but to render them tributary to 

 his intellectual, moral and social development, and his ultimate 

 spiritual elevation and well being. 



In the discharge of this great duty, every avocation of man 

 has its work to perform. It is the province of agriculture to 

 begin the process by the tilling of the ground, as the term im 

 ports, by stimulating and guiding the productive energies of 

 the physical elements to results infinitely transcending, in 



