Proceedixgs of the Farmers' Club. 289 



in some part of the growing season. The ways by which this diffi- 

 culty can be mastered are true problems for every farmer. "We need 

 cheap and practicable methods of spreading the rainfall of spring 

 through the growing season. It can be done by ponds, cisterns, 

 wind-mills, and irrigating canals. As a general remark, $500 well 

 expended will give one command over ten acres to make them as wet 

 as the greatest prosperity of vegetation requires. This full command 

 of moisture will add over fifty dollars to the value of any cultivated 

 acre. In many cases land would be enhanced fifty dollars per acre in 

 the product of the first year. The American farmer should take a 

 broad view of the importance and nobleness of his work. Hunger 

 has upset the strongest and oldest governments of history. Hunger 

 will not threaten the stability of our Constitution for ages, if our farm- 

 ing is as good as our locomotion ; if we apply as good thinking to the 

 solving of problems in agriculture as we do to the problems of medi- 

 cine or law or mechanics. He who does most to make our farming 

 perfect is working directly to make our Constitution perpetual in 

 time and a model for all the races. 



Mr. S. D. Clarke, Oswego, ~N. Y. — I am a stranger among you, 

 Mr. Chairman. I have come 300 miles mainly to meet with you 

 to-day, and hear you talk, and enjoy your eloquence. Oswego is not 

 such a city as yours, but some of us up there on the shores of old 

 Ontario have drunk the wine of progress that you, Mr. Chairman, 

 speak so well of. It lifts up the spirit, but it does not intoxicate. It 

 has induced us to form an agricultural society, and we have a pro- 

 perty worth $10,000, and are increasing in numbers and influence each 

 year. Our main hall is 30x65, and our club-room is 40x30, and we 

 generally have it full. It is one, and only one, of the sprouting seeds- 

 scattered all over this land by your hands. You are the parent 

 societ}\ One of your number has said that you have been twenty- 

 eight years in existence. Allow me to say that heaven only has the 

 numeration table that can note the good you have done, the clouds 

 you have scattered, the fire-sides you have enlivened, the doubts you 

 have resolved, the pellets of wisdom you have sown — some on stony 

 ground, and some on good soil. 



On motion of Dr. J. Y. C. Smith, it was 



Resolved, That when we adjourn, we adjourn to meet on Tuesday, 



September 5. 



Adjourned. 



Inst.] 19 



