ANNUAL MEETING OHIO STATE HOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 15 



social centre will be developed in large, prosperous communities. No church can 

 undertake all this co-operative work, because it is interested in only one phase 

 of life, but the whole community is equally interested in the public school. It 

 would seem, therefore, that the school is the natural, organic centre of country 

 life. If, however, the school is to develop as such a centre, it must concern it- 

 self directly with all the interests of the people and organize all the social forces 

 of the community. 



Such are some of the chief opportunities and needs of the farmers. We 

 have in this state, we see, all the resources and conditions for a prosperous and 

 happy country life. With as good soils and climate as can be found anywhere, 

 with better markets and other economic conditions than are found in most places, 

 with a noble people for friends and neighbors, with good schools now and better 

 -ones coming, why should any man wish to leave Ohio? 



How shall we classify these wanderers away from the old state into the 

 West? How shall we analyze their motives? Some are restless and never satis- 

 fied anywhere long ; others are essentially land speculators and buy cheap lands 

 in the West to sell to their friends at home. Most of the farmers who are 

 urging you to go West belong to that class. Some good men, having large 

 families of boys and little money, go West to buy cheap lands for them. Some 

 go simply because they have in their blood the pioneering spirit, inherited from 

 their fathers, who settled this great country; but a large majority, including all 

 those who put the things of mind and spirit above material things, will stay at 

 home in Ohio, where all the conditions are favorable for making our children 

 nobler, wiser, truer, and braver than we are ; for this, after all, is the chief end 

 of our living and striving. 



OHIO; A BATTLEGROUND; HER POSSIBILITIES. 



BY "GEORGE W. BROWX, 



Zaucsville, Ohio. 



That Ohio is today a battleground is quite evident to the close observer. 

 Her history from Col. Zane and Tecumseh to this day is replete with characters 

 that have left a deep impress upon her institutions. Her valleys have afforded 

 a natural outlet to the lakes and the Mississippi. Her soil has not only produced 

 an abundance of life-giving qualities but has likewise sent forth from her hill 

 tops and valleys men and women of worth to all the vocations of life. Her 

 churches and schools have been a mighty factor in her development. Today a 

 mighty battle is being fought over the same territory that our forefathers fought 

 over. Ours is a different battle. They fought for the possession of the soil and 

 we are fighting for the retention of its soil and its rehabiliment. Our forefathers 

 contended against a mighty foe who sought to destroy the home life of the 

 whites. We are contending against foes as deadly to home life as were the early 

 men of the forest. Let us see along what lines these battles are being waged. 



Ohio, politically, is a battleground. Adams County vote sellers, grafters and 

 bribers in high places, failure to enforce law until a mighty crisis arises that 

 compels a stern hand; all these are indicative of a mighty contention that must 

 soon bring us to a better day. But this phase does not so much concern in this 

 article. 



Religiously there is a mighty battle raging. This is especially true in the 

 rural districts where the churches have seemingly outlived their usefulness. By 

 that is meant the church that no longer serves the community in which it is 



