I 14 



Your patient attention to what I have said deserves its re- 

 ward in the termination of these remarks. I observe, in the last 

 place, that science promises to agriculture benefits in the devel- 

 opment of the noblest crop which any soil produces, — the man- 

 hood upon which the state builds its best, and on vv'hich in our 

 own land the intelligent preservation of our liberties depends, 



You do not care, 1 presume, to listen to any extravagant eulo- 

 gies of the farmer's place in the social world. Your work is 

 hard, your gains slow, in comparison with other occupations. 

 whose charms, often delusive, keep the tide from country to city 

 ever on the flow. Some of you have felt a vague discontent 

 with fortune, which has bound you to the homestead acres. Ah 

 well ! there are many more, and successful ones too, as the world 

 goes, who envy you the narrow compass of your cares, the cool 

 er and serenerair in which you toil. But aside from feeling, it is a 

 solid fact the state has learned to expect much of you. For 

 common-sense to balance mad theorists, for economy to rebuke 

 luxur}' and extravagance, for the wise conservatism of property 

 in land as the needed counterpoise to reckless revolutionaries 

 you are held responsible. The simple institutions which lie at 

 the foundations of the fathers' government sun'ive best among 

 you. More earnestly perhaps than any other class you discuss 

 and settle for yourselves, with no lack of independence, the great 

 questions of the day. More than the vagrant dwellers in cities, 

 you urged to its decision the national verdict against social 

 wrong, and when the call came you filled the army's ranks. 

 Strong, liberty-loving men it is your duty, as your tendency to 

 be. It is not likely that the youngest child of to-day will ever 

 see the time when the republic will not totter to its fall if you 

 are less than this. 



It seems equally certain that the education of the coming age 

 will be largely scientific. This influence will reach the agricul- 



