hogs, forty-six million cattle, forty-five million sheep, 

 twelve and a quarter million horses. "Our live stock 

 formed in a column five deep, would reach round the 

 world." 



We are self-poised. Not an agricultural machine is 

 usable on our farms which is not either an American in- 

 vention, or is made usable by our own inventors. 



It is pleasant to speak of Agriculture, for above all 

 others it is the art most nearly related to life and charac- 

 ter and the homes of men. 



In ancient times, it was common to exalt the art, while 

 the laborer was forgotten. Egypt glorified the labor,, the 

 plow, the soil, but despised the man. It has not been a 

 rare thing to find greater praise given to the beasts that 

 bare the burdens than to the laboring man. They praised 

 labor in the abstract, they sacrificed to the Gods of the 

 harvest, and glorified the winds and showers and even the 

 harvest utensils. Virgil sang sweetly of the art of hus- 

 bandry, but he portrayed the peasant poor, ignorant, and 

 held helpless under the will of the autocrat. It has been 

 thought an honorable thing to own the soil, but to till it 

 has been a menial service. 



Here lies the secret of the slow growth of Agriculture. 

 Man was ignored. The result was that four thousand 

 years passed and man still used the primitive plow, a 

 crooked stick that stirred the ground and could not make 

 a furrow. The old sickle, which was used by the Egyp- 

 tians, was the only instrument for cutting grain until al- 

 most within the memory of man. The grain drill, which 

 was invented by Jethro Tull so late as 1701, was greatly 



