8 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



or leave before adjournment. This always 

 makes a disturbance in the meeting, and is 

 unsatisfactory to those who liave to leave ; 

 and several times we had to adjourn without 

 arriving at any cor.clusion, from tlie fact that 

 nearly all the members had gone out. This 

 could and should all be avoided by meeting 

 early and adjourning at an hoiu' that all could 

 go home before it becomes late. This going 

 out before adjourament and talking among 

 members when the Society is in session is 

 often very annoying, and it is not very 

 pleasant for the chairman to be continually 

 calling to order. I liave no one in view in 

 making these remarks, but do hope we may 

 all avoid tliese things as much as possible. 

 The peeping in at the doorvhas also somewhat 

 disturbed the proceedings. The door should 

 always be closed, and it would be proper to 

 have a paper hung outside, and also one upon 

 the door entering this room, with the follow- 

 ing printed on it : " Meeting of the Agri- 

 cult\ual and Horticultural Society this after- 

 noon at two o'clock : Free to all." Some 

 would come to our meeting who I know would 

 not come now. I have often heard the remark 

 among people, "jl would come to the meet- 

 ings, but don't know where tlie meetings are 

 held." If you tell them in the Court House, 

 they are about as well informed as before. 

 Therefore the above suggestion would answer 

 the whole question, and woidd bring some 

 farmers and persons interested in our work. 

 As it is, they don't know where we meet or 

 whether they are allowed to come in. Invite 

 all, and spend more money for advertising and 

 printer's ink, and it will bring the people. 

 Have a committee on printing and advertis- 

 ing, and have always the essayist appointed 

 b eforehand, and four or five important subjects 

 for discussion at evei'y meeting — questions 

 th at come right home to the farmer and fruit 

 grower ; questions that everybody is interested 

 in — and advertise it. Spend more for printer's 

 ink, and this room will not be large enough to 

 hold our meetings. 



Instead of meeting in this little room, Lan- 

 caster county should have an agricultural 

 society of 500 members, which would be only 

 about ten members out of every township. 

 Let us hold our,meetings in the large court 

 room up stairs. By energetic work, and 

 advertising, and working shoulder to shoulder, 

 this would be accomplished in the course of 

 time, and it would be an honor to which Lan- 

 caster county would be justly entitled. In 

 this way we would get in the leading farmers 

 of the county ; their sons, also, would become 

 interested in the bu.siness of agriculture, 

 ■which is the driving-wheel which runs the 

 machinery of the wliole world. "When once 

 we have a large county agricultural society, 

 let us establish an auxiliary society in each 

 township in the county — have meetings — go 

 together to consult and talk over agricultural 

 matters. In this way we would teach the 

 rising generation the importance of knowledge 

 in tlie profession they are practicing and fol- 

 lowing. The farmers' boys are working day 

 in and day out ; most of them not reading a 

 book or a paper, but following the example of 

 their fatliers and grandfathers. Tlie result is, 

 no improvement. The world moves; we live 

 in a progressive age, and this class find when 

 they grow uj) to be men that they are liehind 

 the age. "When you tell them their situation, 

 they call you a book farmer; that if you edu- 

 cated your sons up to the times they won't 

 work, but will leave the farm and seek for 

 some office, etc. This expression I call a far- 

 cical humbug, and wherever this expression is 

 made we see tlie fruits of it. Here they labor 

 almost day and night ; they i)ost themselves 

 on nothing in or out of their profession — how 

 they could improve theii- farms, make their 

 land productive, their families intelligent ; the 

 result is "all work and no jilay makes .lack a 

 dull boy." Take, for instance, a farmer's son 

 who is raised in a family where there is 

 nothing to improve and cultivate the mind. 

 This boy grows up ; he goes out in company ; 

 the first place of amusement he meets is the 

 hotel or saloon in a neighboring town. The 



games there practiced attract the attention of 

 that undeveloped mind, which is now looking 

 for something more than "all work ;" he soon 

 forms a habit to go to such places for passing 

 his long winter evenings, and his most pre- 

 cious time is thus passed to his bitter disad- 

 vantage when he grows old. He spends occa- 

 sionally a little; these "littles" count up a 

 nice sum out of the father's hard earned 

 dollars, which could be spent much better by 

 investing the same in agricultural books and 

 papers. After this habit of going to these 

 places to pass time which should be spent at 

 home in the family is rooted so deep in this 

 young man's system, he proposes to go to the 

 city into some business. " I won't farm," he 

 says, "it's a dull business; hard work, and 

 no pleasure. " This is the fault of parents. 



The young man now goes to the city to com- 

 mence business. No education, no tact for 

 business of any kind, save places where play- 

 ing cards, loafing and vice and immorality liold 

 their court; he fails, turns out literally bad. 

 After he has gone through with his father's 

 hard earned dollars, he is here, poor and rag- 

 ged. Kow where is the fault V Is book farming, 

 or is educating farmers' sons up to the times, 

 the fault? No; I say emphatically, no. I say, 

 learn the young farmers all you can; teach 

 them that noble motto, that " agriculture is 

 the most noble employment of man." Teach 

 them to work, but have sometliing to improve 

 the mind. Have a number of agricultural 

 books and papers; and at the same time donot 

 neglect the Bible and other books that would 

 teach them something for their eternal wel- 

 fare and their future happiness. Ten times 

 better spend the money for such things than 

 give it to your sons to spend for things that 

 will lead them to the road of eternal damna- 

 tion. Let us have daily, weekly and monthly 

 papers, so that when evening comes and the 

 work is done, we can gather our families 

 around the table, and read what has happened 

 throughout the world. After having exercised 

 the body, the mind is in proper condition to 

 receive and keep knowledge. I ventiire to say 

 that there is no intelligent farmer in the county 

 of Lancaster, or anywhere, who will not say, 

 Amen; who will not say that this is the most 

 Iileasant and profitable way of spending time 

 and money, both for young and old. Let us 

 remember that the fanners' sons should be 

 brought to the meetings of the Agricultural 

 Society. The old are fast passing away; every 

 year a few of our members die. and if no in- 

 ducement for tlie young to come is offered, 

 one of the greatest aids to us, yes, we may say 

 the corner-stone of agriculture, will be entirely 

 neglected. That great good could be accom- 

 plished by having sucli an agricultural society 

 as I have referred to in the former ]iart of my 

 address, cannot he doubted; but this can only 

 be accomplished by having more interest awak- 

 ened, and have advertised what we are going 

 to di.si'uss, and every memlier make it a point 

 to bring his neighbors and friends along, and 

 then talk of matters which they understand. 

 There is often much time spent by this Soci- 

 ety in talking over matters not directly agri- 

 cultural or horticultural. I know that nearly 

 every year tliere is entirely too much time 

 spent in discussing when and where to hold the 

 fruit exhibition, and then generally too late. 

 Committees appointed to consult with the Park 

 Association, back and forward, delayed the 

 arrangement this summer until the eleventh 

 hour. "\Vliy not go to work early, and make 

 up our minds that we can hold an exhibition 

 or a fair, as yon choose to call it, by ourselves, 

 without joining in with an association that is 

 noted for horse-racing and betting, and the 

 reputation of whose grounds is such that tJie 

 respectable class of fanners will not enfertheir 

 gates. The evidence of this we take from the 

 fact that their fairs have time and again been 

 a failure. Instead of the committee appointed 

 to consult with such, that committeaiought to 

 be apjiointed in May and go to work at once, 

 and make such arrangements as will insure a 

 fair that would be an honor to Lancaster 

 county, and not a shame, as has heretofore 

 been the case in both societies. We have the 



material and men to do it, if the thing is pro- 

 perly managed and put in right shape; but 

 when you have racing, gambUng, and that sort 

 of thing connected with fruits and productions 

 of our mother earth, don't ask why it is a fail- 

 ure. Let us go to work and make up a fair next 

 fall which will not only be a benefit and honor 

 to our Society, but also to the grand old garden 

 county of the Keystone State. 



To make good a few words I said in the 

 beginning in regard to the Grange movement, 

 I will but briefly call your attention to it. I 

 Iviiow that there are some persons within the 

 sound of my voice who belong to it, (and 

 whether they are better off or whether it is a 

 direct benefit to them, I will not dispute, for 

 they know that part best themselves), but at 

 the same time, when I give my views on this 

 matter I hope I may not hurt the feelings of 

 any one. In the first place, it is a secret 

 organization. This is the main point of oppo- 

 sition I hold against it. I stand before you as 

 one of the bitterest o]iponents of all secret 

 societies, in any form or manner, whether you 

 call yourself a Mason, a Knight, a Mechanic, 

 or a Granger. The question of Grangery has 

 been fully and ably discussed in our meet- 

 ings of late, and I always have been quiet 

 until to-day. I think a few words may not 

 be out of place. One of my best friends in the 

 society made the remark to me, that the 

 Grange movement would gobble up this whole 

 concern— referring to the Agricultural and . 

 Horticultural Society of Lancaster county. 

 This has aroused my feehng to such an extent 

 that I tlioiight it not out of place to call your 

 attention to the matter, so that if this should 

 be the case, that we be not taken by surprise 

 and belong to the Grangers before we are 

 aware of what is going on. So far as their 

 principles of improving agriculture, so- 

 cial and moral advancement, I go with 

 them ; but when it comes so far that they 

 want to control railroads, markets, and many 

 other things, by secretly plotting such plans 

 for their own interest, I am opposed to them. 

 They hold out to the world very fine induce- 

 ments and show many advantages, but is it 

 sound moral principle for any class of citizens 

 to combine secretly and make a promise that 

 they will not sell their grain until they can 

 get so much for it ? Is it policy for any class 

 of men to hold back anything when the coun- 

 try needs it ? For instance, in the "Western 

 States, where the Grangers are a powerful 

 combination, they say we won't sell any pro- 

 ductions until such and such a price is paid. 

 "H'here is the poor man, outside of the Grange, 

 going to obtain the necessary supplies for his 

 family ? Is this doing as we like to be done 

 by ? Or is it loving thy neighbor as thyself? 

 I say no. In the VVest the cry was against 

 railroads ; they say railroad monopolies must 

 be crushed out, and they did most eflectually 

 crush them out— so effectually that European 

 and other capitalists said, "no more money 

 for railroads." "\Vhat was the result? The 

 panic came, and from its effects the w'hole 

 country is yet sick, and there is no telling J 

 when and where it will end. "No more rail- 1 

 roads" was followed by a general confusion in 

 all the iron manufactories. They stojiped 

 operations. No more railroads was followed 

 by " no more iron to luiild them," and now 

 we have to-day hundreds, yes, thousands of 

 men out of employment — without money or 

 food. These men have broken down railroad 

 monopolies, and built up Grange monoiiolies, 

 in which the farmers want to make all the 

 money themselves ; and I say as soon as 

 one class of men want to control everything, j 

 and go hand-in-hand secretly to accomplish j 

 their own selfish ends, they are injuring them- 

 selves and the wliole eountiy. In the East, 

 and here in I^ancaster county, T can't see any 

 use in them whatever. It is a new fangled 

 notion, and men go into them rough and 

 tumble, and derive very little benefit from 

 them. I say, let a farmer be a farmer ; a rail- 

 road man a railroad man ; a merchant a mer- 

 chant, and everybody attend to his o^^^l 

 business. Then we shall be better off than 

 with all this clubbing together. I do hope 



