240 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



for the benefit of our commerce in time of peace and for the 

 benefit of our navy in time of war. 



It is essential, under our form of government, where 

 rulers are chosen from the people to make and administer 

 the laws, that the people should be educated, and therefore 

 we cannot too highly appreciate educational advantages. 

 But, as education is many-sided, broad and technical, no one 

 person can expect to master all its branches in detail, but 

 should make an effort to master that particular branch which 

 has to do with his life work, whether it be commerce, bank- 

 ing, farming, manufacturing, mining or learned profession. 

 As the business of farming is so extensive, occupies such a 

 large percentage of our population, and all classes are de- 

 pendent upon it, a better knowledge of it should be had by 

 those engaged therein. 



Taxation is a subject of interest not only to the farmer, 

 but to every property holder of our country, but to the 

 farmer especially, as his property lies where it can be seen 

 and where there is no escape, although he may believe and 

 know that he is paying more than his just proportion. Our 

 fathers, in enacting laws for the regulation of a just system 

 of taxation, recognized the principle and laid down the rule 

 *' that all men should be assessed and contribute to the com- 

 mon charges, in accordance with their ability." And Adam 

 Smith, a hundred years later, in his " Wealth of Nations," 

 asserted the principle that " the subjects of every State ought 

 to contribute toward the support of its government, as nearly 

 as possible in proportion to the revenue which they respec- 

 tively enjoy under the protection of the State." If these 

 rules, simple and just, were carried out, there would be no 

 cause for complaint by any one, and there would be no place 

 for "the tax dodger "in our land. Those rules simply 

 mean that property should pay its proportion of taxation 

 without regard to the form of investment. 



In the early settlement of our country all men were 

 farmers, and depended upon the soil for their subsistence. 

 They were industrious and frugal. They subdued the for- 

 est, cleared the land, and planted their seed with a sublime 

 faith in an over-ruling Providence that the work of their 

 hands would prosper. In the same faith they established 



