able to export anything and everything is imported from foreign 

 countries, all the money spent by our tourists abroad, all the money 

 we pay the ship-owners for taking our goods abroad, the interest 

 on obligations to foreigners, all that has to be paid from other sources 

 than the farm, our people will have new problems to consider, let 

 me assure you new troubles to consider. I do not intend to meddle 

 with or touch on politics here at all. I am discussing the soil. 



"The best wish I have is that these great people of this city 

 shall turn their attention to this one necessity of having the soils 

 brought back to their original fertility, as they can be, and anything 

 we can do of course we will willingly do and are anxious to do, and 

 to say this one word, ladies and gentlemen, brought me here to-day. 



"You have given me the. courtesy that is most highly prized by 

 a stranger you have listened to me. 



"And I thank you and bid you good afternoon." 



(Enthusiastic and prolonged applause). 



MR. E. G. MINER (of Rochester) : 



"Mr. Chairman, in order that the sentiments of this body may 

 be embodied in some concrete shape, I move that a Committee be 

 appointed to prepare resolutions and submit them to the meeting for 

 consideration. 



Mr. Miner's motion was seconded and agreed to; whereupon 

 the Chair appointed the following gentlemen to serve on the Com- 

 mittee on Resolutions: f 



E G. Miner, of Rochester Chamber of Commerce. 



E. Pfarrius, of New York Produce Exchange. 



Frank Brainard, of New York Board of Trade and Transportation. 



Herman A. Mletz, of the Merchants' Association, of N. Y. 



Sereno S. Pratt, of the Chamber of Com'merce of the State of New York. 



Geo. A. Frisbie, of the Chamber of Commerce of Utica. 



Hon. J. Sloat Fassett, Member of Congress. 



John A. Stewart, of Morrisville, N. Y. 



BY THE CHAIRMAN : 



"Now, gentlemen, we have heard from our Secretary of Agri- 

 culture, and I am sure that what he has said to us has been intensely 

 interesting. He comes to us with a thorough knowledge of the subject 

 on which he has spoken, and I feel that you will take home with 

 you the thoughts that he has expressed, and that they will be very 

 beneficial for future action. He has spoken for the country at large ; 



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