question as to our modes of cultivation ; to par- 

 ticul irize would be tedious, yet I am aware that 

 agriculture is an art, aud its systems and modes 

 the true delineators of it. I long- to see the day 

 when it shall be regarded among the highest 

 professions, and its educated expositors regard- 

 ed with that proper respect which scientific at- 

 tainments can justly claim. 



The great desideratum of the farmer must be 

 a market, in which to sell or exchange his pro- 

 ductions. If his wants extend no further than 

 a wagon road, that should be a good and safe 

 one, that no more time shall be consumed in 

 travel than is necessary, and with least wear and 

 tear of vehicle, stock and equipments. Good 

 county and state roads should be special objects 

 of the farmers' care. This, however, relates to 

 inter-atate trade ; our surplus products must 

 be exported. The railroads now, and perhaps in 

 future, will continue to do most of our trans- 

 portation ; but this celerity is accompanied with 

 greater expense than farm products can pru- 

 dently allow of. It is, therefore, a vital ques- 

 tion, and admits of no delay nor refusal; shall 

 the general government improve and thus cheap- 

 en the navigation of the Mississippi river and its 

 navigable tributaries ? The most valuable areas 

 of the United States are drained by these rivers, 

 and such improvements should be worthy of the 

 great prestige. 



At no distant day, three-fourths of the popu- 

 lation of this great country will occupy these 

 areas. If the extension of population along the 

 lake shores and west of the upper Mississippi 

 has built up so quickly Chicago, and magnified 

 the enterprises while increasing the prosperity 

 of New York city, which binds this population 

 through her great lines of water and railroad 

 transportation, what may not be reasonably ex- 

 pected for New Orleans and our other favorably 

 located Southern cities, when a perfect levee 

 system for the great river shall be completed, 

 and safe and easy navigation shall be secured to 

 thirty thousand miles of Southern rivers, and 

 the whole vitalized by the great Texas Pacific 

 road, that magnificent enterprise, favored by 

 every man of sense in the South ; when the na- 

 tural sequential railroad lines shall spread over 

 our agricultural areas, as they do now in the 

 North and Northwest ! 



1 know that I reflect the sentiments of our 

 people in expressing on this occasion their good 

 wishes for the success of Col. Scott in carrying 

 to completion that great national work. 



Tennessee desires the improvement of the 

 Cumberland river, which courses fourteen of her 

 counties, asd bathes her capital ; the 600 miles 

 of its navigable length wind among the splendid 

 tobaccco lands of Kentucky and Tennessee. The 

 Muscle Shoals on the Tennessee river must be 

 made safe and easy to navigate ; the 900 miles 

 of that beautiful river will come under the do- 

 minion of steamers, uninterruptedly plying from 

 above Knoxville to the Ohio river. Their ex- 

 port freights will be corn, wheat, wool, tobacco, 

 cattle, hogs, sheep, fruit, timber, coal, iron, lead, 

 zinc, salt, gypsum, marble, baryta, and copper in 

 vast quantities ; and a people who can produce 

 these riches must needs bring home for their 

 enjoyment the rich products of the arts and 

 labors of other states and foreign peoples. 



The old-fashioned way of describing the differ- 

 ent regions of the United States, as Eastern, 

 Middle, Southern, etc., has in a great measure 

 lost, and soon will finally altogether lose, what 

 significance the expression once carried with it. 

 The word sectional is of too little meaning to 

 comprehend that new order of affairs that now 

 appears ; to use a Scriptural metaphor, a pro- 

 phetic " littie horn" is rising, and its prodigious 

 growth removes all doubt of its ascendancy. The 

 identity of interest, the commercial and trade 

 intercourse daily enlarging, the national policy 



of the people of the Mississippi valley from the 

 lakes to the gulf, from Denver toPittsburg. con- 

 stitute them the great center. The Atlantic and 

 Pacific slopes will have their policy, but it will 

 be subsidiary to, or say auxilliary to, the im- 

 measurable strength, the lofty stature and ex- 

 ceiling glory of the centre, whose grandeur and 

 importance cannot be estimated. Its spread 

 buries old prejudices and sectionalisms from out 

 of sight and memory forever ; rears a new race 

 of men of greater activities and wider business 

 relations, who in their career of fortune will be 

 so occupied with their business interests that the 

 story of our cilvil war will have tor them almost 

 as little interest as an indifferent page of uni- 

 versal history has for us to-day. 



It is manifest that the old issues between 

 North and South are finally settled with us, and 

 that all men may, and can, peaceably enjoy the 

 equal protection of the law. It there be local 

 exceptions, these must yield to the universal de- 

 mand for submission to law and order which 

 comes from the Southern people themselves, as 

 loving peace for its salutary influence upon their 

 labor and property ; and because they are a 

 Christian people, reverencing God ; and a na- 

 tional people, loving the constitution of their 

 country, and patriotically proud of their states. 



Would to God that the dark period of distrust 

 which for the last eleven years has palled the 

 brightness of our South land might pass away, 

 that the veil might be lifted from the glowing 

 beauties of this land of sunshine and flowers. 

 Then our people and their industries would re- 

 vive, their old hospitalities unfold again, and a 

 universal return to the standard of their coun- 

 try signal their complete happiness. 



In view of that assured event, I renew the in- 

 vitation to all patriotic and worthy men to come 

 and settle in our beautiful land. It is bountiful 

 and healthy. Those are worth receiving who 

 come to build hearths and home altars to God 

 and country. To such I can truly say, the South 

 needs you, and will accord to you every social 

 ritrht and legal equality. The rest, as it effects 

 your fortunes, is to be obtained by steady labor 

 from the munificent abundance of the Great 

 Creator, which everywhere exists, and no cli- 

 matic rigors are known. 



In conclusion, I return you my thanks for your 

 patient attention. I beg your indulgence If I 

 have said more than I ought on the political 

 condition of the agricultural people of the South, 

 for their field labors have suffered and do suffer 

 from those very conditions, aud the truth, as one 

 understands it, must needs be spoken, though 

 it may meet with opposition. 



I refer you to the admirable statistics of the 

 United States Agricultural Bureau for May and 

 June, ultimo, for information in detail on all 

 Southern productions. The whole country is 

 obliged to J. R. Dodge for his intelligent and un- 

 wearied labors in behalf of the material interests 

 of the people. AS regards our own locality, I 

 have it in my power to gratify the curiosity of 

 any one desiring information. 



