74 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



wanted to carry out ; but the farmer has bred without any 

 specific purpose in his mind, not realizing that his whole 

 salvation depended upon the wisest and most intelligent 

 adjustment of the forces around him, in order to secure 

 success and profit. Now, you know there is not a boy in 

 Massachusetts who would be foolish enough to go out and 

 hunt birds with a fox-hound, or to go out and hunt foxes 

 with a bird-dog, or to hunt cither with a bull-dog; but his 

 daddy very likely will be hunting for a butter cow with a 

 beef animal, and then wonder why the tariff does not do 

 better for him than it has done. Why, my dear friends, the 

 waste, the terrible waste of effort which has characterized 

 American agriculture is disheartening, — it is fearfully dis- 

 heartening. We see it in the West worse than you do. 

 Four years ago there was a very severe drought in Rock 

 County, Wis., and half a million of dollars were spent 

 in buying fodder for the cattle, sheep and horses in that 

 county ; and at the same time there was an acre of corn 

 fodder there for every animal there was in it. And those 

 men are saying, " Lo, here is the Christ of our agricultural 

 salvation, over in the tariff! " and " Lo, here, in the Farmers' 

 Alliance!" and " Lo, there!" — " Lo, anywhere," but in 

 the heart and in the head. God said, " By the sweat of thy 

 face" (it is quoted generally " brow") " shalt thou eat thy 

 bread." Now, why did he put the sweat on the brow? He 

 did not put it on the back, he did not put it on the hand, he 

 did not put it anywhere else except on the brow. I think 

 he did that for the purpose of indicating to you and me that 

 if the little machine that lies underneath the brow does not 

 work intelligently, there will be a shortage of bread. I 

 read this between the lines, that the sweating must be below 

 the simple covering of the head, and it is very likely to cause 

 an exudation over the brow. 



Now, I have been thinking on this question. I have seen, 

 my friends, — I know it is true in Massachusetts, and it is 

 true all over the United States, — I have seen the destruc- 

 tively low average of our dairy cattle, — destructively low 

 in the sense of destroying our hope and our profit ; and men 

 are working upon farms on the hill-sides and in the valleys 

 all over the country, engaged in handling cattle without an 



