the grave, and then, by the power of his tender care and wise nurture, 

 calls it up from its winding sheet and bids it bloom, and wave, and 

 rustle, and perfume the air, helping it forward to fruitf ulness in the 

 golden wheatfield, the blushing cheek and mellow sweetness of the 

 apple, peach, pear, plum, etc., until the hills and valleys, meadows 

 and cornfields, conscious of life, clap their hands and shout : " O 

 grave where is thy victory ?" And well they may ; for the victory is 

 complete, and the farmer is co-worker in the performance of the 

 miracle. 



He preached the doctrine of a glorious and mysterious transfor- 

 mation, or transmission of a lower type into a higher, not as yet 

 reaching any limits. Under his wise and scientific manipulation of 

 the laws of nature, (for he never works outside of them,) he brings 

 the grass of the primeval pasture forward to the excellent edible 

 grain ; and then from this seed multiplies the varieties endlessly, so 

 that we have many varieties of wheat, corn, oats, potatoes, apples, 

 peaches, etc., etc, In the recent state fair of New York, there were on 

 exhibition one hundred and twenty-two varieties of potatoes ; of oats, 

 thirty-one varieties ; of barley, twelve ; of wheat forty-nine ; and of 

 vegetable growths over nine hundred sorts were shown. 



And the same is true in regard to animals. While neither the 

 farmer nor the Creator produces the transformation of species, he, 

 the farmer, does change the lower type into a higher type. This 

 wonderful evolution is going on continually all around us ; and thus 

 on the agricultural field of the world, we see animal life changing 

 from glory to glory, according to the wisdom and spirit of the farmer. 

 „ Again, nature gives us the simple flower or single corolla ; the 

 garden-farmer gives us the double rose, the double pink, the double 

 hollyhock, the double sunflower, rendered so sensational of late by 

 the dude, may be seen from the fact that he put a sunflower into the 

 button-hole, and into the bosom of Christendom. 



Thus you see the farmer preaches a living gospel — a gospel that 

 the world needs and is very apt to appreciate, particularly when peo- 

 ple come to experiment on the toothsomeness of farm productions. 



And as we thus contemplate the work and mission of the farmer, 

 the fact of progress stands out as distinctly in the farm as in any 

 other sphere of human endeavor and enterprise. 



We have spoken of the varieties of farm-production as exhibited 

 in the New York fair, among which there were over nine hundred 

 sorts of vegetable growths. Now if we go back to the time of Henry 

 VIII., in the 16th century, we find that cultivated herbage and edi- 



