82 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
agriculture lies at the basis of our material wealth, or in 
other words that all branches of industry are to a great ex¬ 
tent dependent upon what the soil yields, is but •to repeat 
what has often been asserted. It is a matter of fact that * 
when the land of our country yields bountifully, all trades 
expect to thrive, unless by some manipulation the pro¬ 
ducer fails to receive just remuneration for his labor in the 
sale of his produce. 
Although productive soil is indispensable, it must re¬ 
ceive cultivation and the owner of the land shall derive a 
compensation equivalent to the profit which a merchant 
makes in the sale of his goods. 
If for any cause the year proves an unprofitable one to 
the farmer, be he a tiller of the soil, or one who derives his 
income from dairying, its effects are felt by all in our cities 
and towns engaged in merchantile business, and perhaps 
such a state of things is more injurious to them than to the 
farmer himself, since food, that great essential, which the 
farmer produces for his own consumption, all others must 
acquire by purchase, so that, though the farmer does not 
thrive, he can live, while others must thrive to live. 
Does not this view, and is it not a correct one, place 
the farmer at the foundation of our material wealth ? And 
is it not true that the enterprise, upon which all others de¬ 
pend, contributes most largely to a given end ? Who but 
the farmer feeds the thousands pouring in upon us from 
foreign shores ? And they not only do this, but export to 
those that remain at home. We hear much about our 
growth and increase of wealth, as a people, and would ask 
to what one class do we owe this so much as to the men 
who have opened up these broad and rich prairies to culti¬ 
vation, and whose sons, in many instances, are now engaged 
in the same work further West. True, a people properly 
situated might acquire wealth by the pursuit of other indus¬ 
tries, and import their food, but we are not speaking of 
what might have been with us, rather, what has been and is, 
and claim that the very length and breadth of our great 
land makes agriculture the basis upon which other indus¬ 
tries must build. But to enhance the real prosperity of our 
nation, a class must be some more than the producers of 
wealth, they must be both intelligent and upright for two 
