No. 4.] AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 257 



do I believe that their usefulness is passed, or the time 

 come when they should be discarded. They may be, indeed 

 they should be, changed in many respects to meet the de- 

 mand of new and advancing ideas, and still be a powder for 

 good in promoting the agricultural and mechanical indus- 

 tries of the communities of State and nation. To forecast 

 the future of existing agricultural organizations with any 

 degree of certainty would be impossible. They will be, 

 like everything else, subject to change, to meet wants and 

 fulfil the demands of a progressive public spirit. Their in- 

 fluence can be measured only by the interest taken in them. 

 As they are representatives of the leading occupation, and 

 the one on which all others depend for material and even 

 for existence, they should receive the most cordial support 

 of the whole people. It would be a commendable object to 

 impress the people with the importance of agriculture to all 

 other industries ; to call the attention of those engaged in 

 other pursuits and industries to their dependence on agri- 

 culture for their success. There is a tendency, in the rest- 

 less rush in business, which characterizes the American 

 people, to forget the prime factors which lie at the founda- 

 tion, so eager are they to reach conclusions at a jump. But 

 stability in all things can be attained only wiien the founda- 

 tions are secure. Let it be the grand aim of the farmer to 

 so impress the importance of his occupation on all others, 

 and so demean himself, that he shall be able to take the first 

 place in the community and society, to which his vocation 

 entitles him. 



