facilities? For two reasons. 1. They dojnot appre- 

 ciate the advantages of a country life to them- 

 selves and their posterity. 2. The relation which 

 they establish between themselves and their 

 tenant farmers is not what it should be. It is 

 known as "farming on shares," andisprofesedly 

 arranged upon the principle of co-operative in- 

 dustry, which in agriculture, as everywhere 

 else, is based upon the fact of human fraternity. 

 But that principle may be abused, and as applied 

 in our present system of tenant farming, it is too 

 frequently abused. We claim too much of our 

 tenant farmer when we claim an equal share of 

 everything he produces. We are like that school 

 of political philosophers who would put a tariff 

 on everything imported, instead of upon half a 

 dozen specified articles of import. The nation 

 suffers because it heeds these foolish philoso- 

 phers, and we suffer from our foolish farm leases. 

 We welcome you gentlemen, because we believe 

 that a National Agricultural Congress can effect 

 a reform in the terms of these contracts. 



Hither to these beautiful grounds the Ameri- 

 can people come, from the North and the South, 

 to shake hands "all round," and thank God that 

 negro slavery that one accursed thing which 

 threatened to divide our nation has gone for- 

 ever. But with it went the class of planters, 

 who, although they advocated a system of social 

 disposition, were at Washington the stern and 

 eloquent champions of political liberty, and con- 

 stituted the great agricultural equipoise in our 

 national councils. Unfortunately taking ad- 

 vantage of our conflict British capitalists to 

 say nothing of their government seized the op- 

 portunity to cripple and destroy our merchant 

 marine. Commerce lost enormously in property. 

 She lost also the prestige which ever on a repub- 

 lic like ours rightly belongs to her. The field 

 was thus left open to the third and remaining 

 branch of industry, manufactures, and well did 

 her teeming millions seek to improve the occa- 

 sion. By combinations which covered the land, 

 they controlled national legislation. With what 

 result let the prostrate energies of a great peo- 

 ple attest. We welcome you gentlemen, because 

 we hope through you to see now, with " Liberty 

 throughout the land," the agricultural equipoise 

 at least in some degree restored in our national 

 councils. We need how greatly we need an 

 active, refined body of farmers, wielding an in- 

 fluence that shall make itself felt in the Capitol 

 and at the White House. The reconstruction of 

 the nation will not be complete until agriculture 

 and commerce shall be restored to an equal place 

 and influence with their twin sister, manufact- 

 ures, when the Union will march forward in tri- 

 une harmony. As a means to this great end we 

 must win to our art the retired capitalist, the 

 man of active business, and him of elegant leis- 

 ure, winning them by presenting the peculiar 

 charm of our vocation. A vocation which sur- 

 rounds us with the beautiful in nature, and con- 

 tinually invites us to the interpretation of her 



mysteries. A vocation in which we seek to con- 

 trol the refined chemistry of the gases, to draw 

 them from the atmosphere, and to transform 

 them into new combinations for human susten- 

 ance. A vocation in which we seek to control 

 the more subtle agencies of vitality and so to di- 

 rect the forces of animal and vegetable life that 

 they may produce "some 40, some 60, some IOC 

 fold." We seek to deal with the undecomposa- 

 ble elements of matter, to compound them into 

 sources of fertility and cover the earth with 

 verdure. We find in our work, day by day, new 

 proofs of a beneficient Providence and of our 

 dependence on His bounty. " Paul may plant, 

 and Apolles water, but God giveth the increase." 



And now, gentlemen of the National Agricult- 

 ural Congress, I extend to your president the 

 right hard of agricultural fellowship and again 

 welcome you to Philadelphia. 



Captain Burnet Landreth, Chief of the 

 Bureau of Agriculture, of the International 

 Exhibition then delivered the following ad- 

 dress : 



Mr. President and CknUenwn of the National 

 Agricultural Congress. It has been intimated to 

 me that it may be proper to offer a few remarks 

 pertaining to the great interests of agriculture, 

 in which most, now assembled, it is presumed, 

 are directly concerned. I recognize the duty of 

 each of us to do what within him lies to ad- 

 vance the general good, and in the special mat- 

 ter of Agriculture the rule is with me impera- 

 tive, else I should hesitate on this occasion in 

 the presence of those at whose feet I might seek 

 instruction. 



The arrival of this grand Centennial epoch, 

 with its memories of the past, its pride in the 

 present, and its hopes of the future has warmed 

 our blood, and led to increased fellowship be- 

 tween men of all sections, and all interests, and 

 finds vent in expressions of admiration at their 

 works. Indeed, it is only necessary to witness 

 the gratification evident in every eye to realize 

 the fact, that good results will endure long after 

 we, who are now assembled on these Interna- 

 tional Exhibition Grounds, shall have returned 

 to our respective homes, and that our children 

 whom we have brought hither to partake with 

 us of present, enjoyment and gratification will 

 relate to their children in another generation 

 the glories of this day. 



Happy shall we be as a nation, as a people 

 united by geographical bonds, by a common 

 kindred, and a common interest, if we recognize 

 in its full extent the moral as well as the materi- 

 al force of the great centennial occasion, which 

 has brought together, face to face, for the first 

 time, the myriads which no other opportunity 

 has afforded, and which, it is very certain can 

 never occur again to them. 



But to go back to agriculture the interest 

 which most immediately and directly concerns 

 us in this exposition. How much we have to 



