last season 56.596 tons of fertilizers. Under the 

 law, the Commission of Agriculture has especial 

 charge of the inspection aud analysis of fertili- 

 zers, and is authorized to forbid the sale of such 

 articles as do not contain a reasonable amount 

 of plant food. All worthless brands are there- 

 lore entirely excluded from the Georgia mar- 

 ket. 



The analysis of all others are published for 

 the information of farmers, as well as the com- 

 mercial value and selling price of each brand. 

 Five hundred pounds of each brand are requir- 

 ed for soil tests which are now being conducted 

 under the direction of the commission by one 

 hundred and ten practical farmers in all sec- 

 tions of the state. As the result of this system 

 of inspection aud analysis the farmers are not 

 only protected from the impositions which were 

 before practiced upon them, but as a result of 

 the contrast of the chemical composition and 

 commercial values of the various brands, he 

 secures his fertilizers nearly twenty-four per 

 cent, cheaper this year than last. Again, by 

 scientific experimental investigation it has been 

 found that the farmer can save seventy-five per 

 cent, of his former outlay for fertilizers by com- 

 posting home material with acid phosphate. 

 This information has been disseminated through 

 the publication of the State Department of 

 Agriculture 'till nearly half the farmers in the 

 state have adopted the compost system by 

 which a million dollars are annually saved in the 

 state. The increase in the oat crop of the state 

 as the result of information as to varieties and 

 time of sowing, is worth half a million dollars 

 to the state this year. Statistics have been col- 

 lected which show the errors of the past and 

 point out remedies to be used in future. Stock- 

 raising is being encouraged by the preparation 

 and publication of manuals for the use of farm- 

 ers. 



A Hand-book of the state has been prepared 

 for the purpose of making known the resources 

 of the state her advantages of soil and climate, 

 and other facts for the information of intelli- 

 gent capitalists in other sections of our own 

 country, as well as those of the old world. 



These are some of the results of the first two 

 years' labor of this department which has only 

 reached the threshold of its usefulness and 

 profit to the state. 



With the aid of the state geologist, Dr. George 

 Little, of whose work I wish to speak present- 

 ly, samples of more than forty beds of marl 

 have been analyzed and a manual of its use is 

 being prepared for the instruction of the farm- 

 ers. 



At an annual cost of one cent to the inhabi- 

 tant, a geological survey of Georgia, conducted 

 by Dr. George Little, shows unlimited mineral 

 wealth-embracing 175 square miles of coal iron 

 ore of the best quality and almost without 

 limit copper ore in abundance and of the best 

 quality immense quantities of iron pyrites 

 very pure, from which unlimitable quantities of 

 sulphuric acid, which we need to render bone 

 phosphate soluble, may be manufactured vast 

 beds of white, red and black marble a bed of 

 excellent roofing slate, 100 feet thick a solid 

 mountain of granite, seven miles in circumfer- 

 ence and 700 ft. high lime and marl in inex- 

 haustible supply manganese, Baryton &c. 

 with as much gold as there is in California. 



It will be seen then, Mr. President, that as in- 

 dividuals and a state we are attempting reform. 

 The state of Georgia has established an official 

 head for the advancement of her agricultural 

 interests. She is havmg her water power 

 measured and her mineral deposits examined by 

 a skillful geologist for the information of manu- 

 facturing and mining capitalists. She asks the 

 co-operation of her sister states in her efforts 

 at reform and progress in all that pertains to 

 the elevation of her citizens in intelligence, 

 prosperity and happiness. She has invoked the 

 aid of science in its application to the develop- 



ment of her material resources, au<i recogniz- 

 ing it in its true light, as nature's interpreter has 

 made it tributary to the art of agriculture 

 from which it has been too long divorced by ig- 

 norance, prejudice and superstition. 



Agriculture being the leading interest in a 

 large majority of the states of the Union, it 

 should receive the fostering care of the state 

 governments. 



Agriculture should be studied as a science as 

 well as an art. The art should be practiced un- 

 der the full glow of the light of science. There 

 are many investigations to be made in every 

 state \v hich cannot be conducted by individuals. 

 Even it individuals have the means and the 

 public spirit to experiment for the benefit of 

 their fellow man, the facts developed by indi- 

 vidual investigations are not so readily received 

 as those coming with the stamp of official au- 

 thority. If each state in the Union had a state 

 Department of Agriculture, the field of useful- 

 ness of each would be much extended by the 

 additional means thus afforded for the collec- 

 tion of information and its dissemination after 

 its collection. 



A cordial interchange of information and im- 

 proved seeds between the different states, 

 would engender more kindly feelings, vastly in- 

 crease the general fund of agricultural infor- 

 mation, discover channels of profitable recipro- 

 cal exchange of products, and increase the pro- 

 ductive capacity of all by a natural interchange 

 of the results of practical and experimental 

 knowledge. 



We need in all the states a more practical 

 statesmanship; one which looks more to the ad- 

 vancement of the citizen in intelligence and 

 material prosperity one which regards the 

 government of the state more as an instrumen- 

 tality for the promotion of the general welfare 

 of the citizens, than as a system of machinery 

 for the collection of taxes and the punishment 

 of offenders. 



We need to hear less of .state rights and 

 more of state development in material wealth- 

 less of political reconstruction and more of the 

 reconstruction of individual, and by conse- 

 quence of state prosperity. 



Let our platform be the prosperity of the citi- 

 zen and the development of the material resource* 

 of the state and nation. 



NATIONAL REFORM. 



While the battle on the arena of national poli- 

 tics is being fought with the watchword reform* 

 which meets with a hearty echo from the masses 

 of the people, let us avail ourselves, as represen- 

 tatives of the grand army of producers, consti- 

 tuting more than half of the entire population 

 of the nation, of the tidal wave of popular sen- 

 timent to demand certian measures -of reform 

 by22J4 millions of agriculturists shall be repre- 

 sented in the government of the United States. 

 We have a Department of War and the Navy. 

 Let us now insist upon a Department of PEACE 

 presided over by a representative of the great 

 productive interest of our Country Agriculture* 

 Let us demand in the emphatic language of 

 men who know their rights, that the Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture be made a Cabinet officer. 



Let us insist, until we shall be heard by the 

 recognition of the existence of 22^ millions of 

 Agriculturists who lead and clothe the nation. 



For the want of a voice in the council of the 

 nation, the material interests of our people are 

 languishing, our commerce declining,our lactor- 

 ies idle, and our furnaces and foundries are cold. 



Our National Department of Agriculture has 

 accomplished much good, but there is still a field 

 of usefulness awaiting it, when with a proper 

 organization of the agricultural forces of the 

 country, its head shall take his legitimate posi- 

 tion as one of the political family of the Presi- 

 dent. 



Each state should have a Department of Agri- 

 culture which collects information either direct- 



