556 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



ican food products into foreign markets and promote their con- 

 sumption. That department should have the means to employ, 

 under its own direction, commercial agents in every food market 

 in the world. Denmark sends its agents to England, to receive, 

 guard and look after its shipments of butter and bacon. Canada 

 is doing the same. There is no reason on earth why the United 

 States should not show the same good business sense. Besides, 

 there is a great trade awaiting us at our very doors in the sister 

 republics of the southern part of this continent. 



Can we say or do anything here which will move our national 

 Legislature into work of a practical character, in the way of mail 

 subsidies to a line of American steamships sailing direct from our 

 ports to South American ports? I hope we can. It is a reproach 

 to the practical statesmanship of the American people that some- 

 thing has not been done of this character. 



We can promote a wide acquaintanceship between the agricult- 

 urists of the whole country, teaching ourselves the doctrine that 

 with us there is no north, no south, no east, no west. The invigo- 

 rating sympathy, welcome and hospitality with which this Congress 

 has been greeted everywhere should build us anew in faith, hope and 

 courage. Just so long as we put our purpose above ourselves, will 

 the people encourage the promotion of the objects and purposes of 

 this organization. We have something more to live for than a 

 mere living. We have, as a class, large duties to perform to the 

 nation, the State and the community. Our standing among men 

 is the true measure of the rights and privileges that will be ac- 

 corded to us in law or in social relations. We have ourselves, 

 not our stars, to blame if we are underlings. Every other profes- 

 sion pays respect to intellectual power and development. Have 

 they secrets to solve more profound than ours ? Have they prob- 

 lems more difficult to comprehend? No. The farmer stands daily 

 in the presence of God's laws, the most profound, the most subtle 

 of all laws to interpret. He shrinks from contention, for he real- 

 izes his lack of intellectual training. He submits to unjust laws 

 and systems of taxation. He sees personal property largely ex- 

 empt and landed property grievously burdened, yet he knows that 

 the true basis of all taxation is the dollar's worth of property, 

 without regard to its character. For his own success in business, 

 he must be better educated as a farmer ; for his own protection as 

 a citizen, must study harder and look deeper into his relations 

 with his fellow men in the great social and political compact. He 

 needs so much, and the country needs still more from him — a 

 higher intellectual comprehension of what it means to be an Amer- 

 ican farmer and an American citizen. 



