236 Wisconsin state agricultural society . 
the honorable employments that contented their hard-working 
parents before them. 
Happy is it that comparatively few among us here in Wiscon¬ 
sin entertain such foolish notions, and that the great mass of the 
community can still look proudly up to Heaven in the very midst 
of their labors, grateful for their many blessings, and calling no 
man “ master ! ” 
Before closing, I feel that I ought again to congratulate you 
upon your generally happy and prosperous condition; and when 
we contrast the situation of the country as a whole with what it 
was but seven short years ago, we must be overwhelmed with 
amazement, and should be with thanksgiving. Now, at peace 
among ourselves and with the whole world. Then, two millions 
of men withdrawn from the pursuits of peace, devoting them¬ 
selves to the forging of implements of death and to the killing of 
one another: 
“ You forge the coulter now, 
The coulter of the kindly plow. 
Sweet Mary mother bless your toil, 
May its broad furrow still unbind * 
To genial rain, to sun and wind, 
The most benignant soil.” 
In the earnest hope that a kind providence will continue to 
* bestow upon you an ever increasing measure of happiness and 
prosperity, so that future seasons may witness many displays of 
the products of your industry, rivaling, if not surpassing, the 
proud exhibition you make here to-day, I will no longer detain 
you from the many objects that challenge your attentive observa¬ 
tion and well-merited praise. 
