17 



blood for the one sole purpose of uplifting degraded man- 

 hood to conscious freedom and break off forever the shac- 

 kles from labor. 



Ignorance ie opposed to all progress. In the laborer it 

 necessitates clumsy tools, heavy, hard to handle Igno- 

 rance repels machines, regards as an innovation what 

 - the burden of man. The yeomanry of Britain, so 

 late as 1830, went about destroying the threshing ma- 

 chine. That would never occur on this side the water. 



American ideas are abroad. Our life flows in the cur- 

 rents of the world. Races are uplifted by the ongoing of 

 our generations. 



The factor of American competition is not only in soil 

 and climate, nor simply in ploughs and reapers. It is not 

 confined to methods and processes. It is also a competi- 

 tion of manhood. 



It is the man on the farm, the man with the plough and 

 reaper, the man with thought and skill, eager in inven- 

 tion, with energy of will, carrying thought into action, 

 the American farmer, acute, alert, aspiring, he is the man 

 who changes the aspect and the forces of Agriculture, — 

 the man conscious of knowledge, understanding his art, 

 himself a responsible unit in social and political life, 

 choosing his place, casting his ballot, owning his land. 



Essex county has 2347 farms, averaging 66 acres. Of 

 these 2561 are cultivated by the owners. The farms of 

 our county are valued at $16,000,000. The product from 

 them is two and a quarter millions a year. We gather 

 every year 5,000 bushels barley, 104,000 bushels corn, 

 7,000 bushels oats, and our orchard products aggregate 



