416 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



valleys of this great new continent of ours. And, while 

 they better understand the art of cultivating the soil, the 

 mode seems primitive in comparison with the high art 

 with which we are now blessed. Our forefathers in the 

 beginning were farmers, carpenters, masons, merchants and 

 manufacturers, complete though primitive in the individual. 

 First and foremost he was a farmer, and he used the other 

 avocations merely as incidental to the first and chief employ- 

 ment. Less than a half-century has elapsed since the spin- 

 ning wheel and the hand loom were common and necessary 

 in the American home. Fifty years ago the American 

 farmer lived almost entirely within his own resources and 

 within himself. He built his own cabin, constructed his 

 own fireplace and chimney and fashioned his own farm 

 implements. 



"A portion of the field was set aside for flax, and when 

 it was pulled, bleached and broken, it was manufactured 

 into fabrics to supply the needs of the family. The cotton 

 grown on the farm and the clippings from the flocks were 

 submitted to various processes of preparation necessary, 

 and made into clothing without leaving the farm. 



' ' The skins and furs of animals were tanned by the farmer 

 or the local tannery and converted into shoes for himself 

 and family, and all his energies were in the direction of 

 securing from the farm all necessary supplies. As our 

 country has developed, the inventive genius has been called 

 into activity, and under his inventions the American farm 

 hand can accomplish the labor of nearly five men of the old 

 world, and he has so divided and diversified employment as 

 to revolutionize the former condition of things. 



' ' Dotted over our vast country are to be found the towns 

 and cities, with the ceaseless din of factories and the hurry 

 and bustle of trade and traffic. The quiet of every com- 

 munity is disturbed day and night by the busy wheels of 

 commerce, as the railways sweep in every direction over 

 their steel trackage, in transit to seaboard cities laden with 

 the rich products of the American farm. In the busy marts 

 are found the employees of national and international steam- 

 ship lines, the transportation companies, the grain elevators 



