176 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



either farmers or planters themselves, or the sons of such. 

 Ten of this sixteen were the sons of farmers, born and spend- 

 ing their childhood on small farms ; and four of them, indeed 

 I might say five, were on new or " pioneer" farms in their 

 boyhood, actually helping in the arduous and toilsome work 

 of subduing the wilderness to the plough. This is not the 

 story of a peasant class. 



Not only were the architects and builders of the American 

 idea during the colonial period essentially farmers, but so 

 were the statesmen the first seventy j^ears of the republic ; 

 and I think there will be no dispute but that the increased 

 corruption in national and State politics has grown almost in 

 the same proportion as the domination of towns and cities 

 has grown. As a larger and larger part of city-bred men 

 came into politics, there has come with it an increased pro- 

 portion of professional politicians, patriots in speech, but 

 alas ! too often patriots " for revenue only." 



The strength of a nation must consist essentially in what 

 many have been pleased to call its middle class, — those who 

 were neither rich nor poor ; those Avho must both work and 

 make use of their own capital in their vocation. The farms 

 not only have been, but must and will continue to be, the 

 great home of the middle class in this country, — that class 

 from which arises most of the men who take a leading part in 

 all that advances civilization ; the class from which springs 

 the more progressive and the stronger men intellectually in 

 all countries. I shall have occasion to refer to this again in 

 several other connections. 



The Farm as the 1*1 ace to grow Men. 

 Country life has in all times been healthier than city life. 

 In all previous ages of the world the human race has degen- 

 erated when aggregated in cities. This has been emphat- 

 ically true of the larger cities, all of which hav^e only been 

 maintained by a continual draft of country l)lood. It has 

 been said that no family survived in Paris more than three 

 generations, without fresh infusion from the country. In 

 England and on the continent all the " old families" had 

 their country residence, where the children were reared, and 

 where adults went to recruit the health and energies wasted 

 in city life. 



