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■we must rely ; they must provision our vast armies, they must 

 feed our hungry poor, they must carry us through the war. 

 And to that cry for help there has been no slow or feeble re- 

 sponse. Most nobly has the exigency been met. We have as 

 yet no statistics to instruct us ; but it will undoubtedly here- 

 after appear, that never before in our histoiy has such breadth 

 of land been tilled, or such a variety and extent of produce 

 been raised. Meanwhile there has been plenty for home con- 

 sumption, the vast demands of the army and navy have been 

 promptly met, and there has been no sensible diminution in 

 the supply for foreign export ; and the country has shown that 

 even when rent with dissensions and civil war, and shorn of a 

 part of that strength which exists complete only in union, it 

 can not only maintain itself, but help feed the less fortunate 

 portions of the world. And thus we have a new and most 

 emphatic illustration of the truth, that the real strength of a 

 nation, its support in peace, its reliance in war, the only sure 

 safeguard of its prosperity and power, is to be found in the 

 wide extent and full development of its agricultural resources. 

 And thus, too, at once the great problem presents itself, how 

 shall agriculture be encouraged and promoted, and how shall 

 men, the right sort of men, men of talents and of means, be 

 induced to engage in, to elevate and extend it ? The ready 

 answer is. By making it more profitable and mare attractive. 

 And this response, though twofold in form, is in reality a unit, 

 for the more profitable farming becomes, the more attractive it 

 will be, — while whatever tends to make it more attractive will 

 be found in the end to conduce to its profit. It is of little use 

 to declaim about the dignity of labor and the nobility of the 

 soil. In some sense it is all true, — but for any practical pur- 

 pose it is of little value save as a rhetorical flourish and to 

 round a period. The great question in regard to this, as in 

 regard to all other occupations, is. Will it 'pay ? Men, how- 

 ever they may fight for glory, will not dig for a name, or delve 

 and toil in the earth as a matter of sentiment. While they 

 have a living to earn, and children to feed and clothe, and old 



