8() BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



of language, ob«tinate in all matters of dress or observance 

 of society manners, rough and uncouth, capable only of a 

 life so prinutive as to i)rovoke curiosity but not awaken 

 interest. The caricatures of the Ncav England farmer, 

 whether in rhymes of the would-be poet or coming from the 

 pencil of the would-be artist, are as far removed from the 

 men on our fiirms as these poets and artists are from Whittier 

 or Raphael. The character of their work, the coarseness of 

 their conceptions, indicate the shallowness of mental fibre 

 which is willing to sell itself for a dollar to provoke simply 

 a smile. We have laughed at the caricatures, both hy pen 

 and brush, but did not realize that these have operated 

 powerfully against the industry. 



Never was there justification for such a picture, never a 

 day when the farms, especially in New England, were not 

 only helping feed the world, but the men and women thereon 

 shaping the permanent fabric of our social, intellectual, 

 moral and spiritual life, and insuring that defence of law 

 and order which has made the streets of our cities safe and 

 their population secure. 



Emphasize, then, this fact of dependence, for in the stren- 

 uous life of the to-morrows before us not only must the 

 farmers feed the millions, but safeguard our institutions. 

 The livelier the sentiment of dependence, in your towns and 

 cities, upon the men ^vho are shaping the agriculture of the 

 twentieth century, the more secure will be the government 

 at Washington or on Beacon Hill. 



The incoming of the immense army, not from the shores 

 of Germany, Ireland, Scotland and England, but chiefly 

 from those of the Latin races, places heavier burdens on the 

 conservative, native-born population. Cities and towns are 

 more and more being occupied by that class, so difficult to 

 Americanize, because by training and inheritance antago- 

 nistic to the fundamental thought of this o-overnment. 



Alwa3^s, everywhere and for all time, the security of the 

 larger thought and freer conception of self-control and self- 

 government has rested on those who have diligently sought, 

 not alone to grow the crops and stock, but to reach after the 

 solution of the intricate ])roblems involved in this growth. 



