264 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



may be somewhat prejudiced against it ; but, let me say to 

 you, we are all working for the same grand end, — to im- 

 prove the farmer, to improve the farmers' homes, and, 

 through education and co-operation, to improve the farming 

 industry of this Commonwealth ; and not only of this Com- 

 monwealth, but of the nation. Twenty-two or three years 

 ago, at the close of the civil war, Mr. Newton was Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture. His thought was upon that part of 

 the South where the devastating influence of war had swept 

 away all the prosperity of the former agriculture. He ap- 

 pointed a Mr. Kelly, then a clerk in the department of 

 agriculture, to visit the South. He went through that 

 country, and saw the desolation on every hand. What could 

 be done to encourage the disheartened and discouraged agri- 

 culturists? He put his mind to the work, came back to 

 Washington, met with those who had been interested in 

 agricultural matters, and suggested to them the idea that, 

 first of all, they must educate the people of the South. They 

 could not plant agricultural colleges there, but they could 

 gather the people together in some local associations, and 

 educate them in improved methods of agriculture, — in a 

 reconstructed agriculture, as it were ; because the slave 

 labor of the past must be replaced by the paid labor of the 

 freedman. How could they educate them ? They must have 

 some organization to do this, — a thorough one, State and 

 local; and, looking upon the history of associated efibrts in 

 years gone by, they conceived the idea of binding this people 

 together in a fraternal order, with a ritual. And, when they 

 were speaking of the South, the question was asked, "Why 

 confine it to the South? Why not make it national in its 

 scope?" And so they went on enlarging their ideas, until 

 they perfected a national order, — a strong fraternal body, 

 bound together with a ritual, whose whole object should be 

 to improve and benefit the tillers of the soil of Am'erica. 

 In that early day there was much to be overcome ; but they 

 were determined to carry forward their work, and the State 

 organization began, slowly working its way to the westward, 

 and this order increased with a rapidity second to no other 

 in the world. But they made a mistake. The politicians 

 and sharpers thought there was an opportunity to run it 



