MISCELLANEOUS ADDRESSES. 
243 
FARMER OF THE FUTURE. 
BY HON. C. G. WILLIAMS. 
\ 
Address delivered at the Dane County Fair at Madison, September 19,1872. 
Mr. Chairman , Ladies and Gentlemen: 
I saw recently in the columns of a public journal that an 
Eastern savant, journeying westward and crossing the prairies of 
Illinois by the usual traveled routes, had obtained some fine views 
of the country from the doors of the baggage car, and received 
various valuable hints from the baggage master and brakeman as 
to the products of the soil; and having returned eastward, 
would soon publish a treatise upon “ practical farming,” for the 
enlightenment and guidance of the Western agriculturist. 
With similar opportunities and like advantages, I am invited 
here to-day, and, I suppose,'expected not only to interest, but to 
instruct a gathering of Dane county farmers in the details and 
duties of their chosen avocation. Fully appreciating the compli¬ 
ment, I must nevertheless decline the proffered invitation. Care¬ 
fully prepared tables of statistics, close analysis of the soil, the 
component parts of guano and the mysteries of bone dust, have 
not only a charm for the ardent theorist, but an actual fascination 
for the experimental farmer ; and I am happy to know that these 
things have not only been tesled in the arithmetic and the labora¬ 
tories of science, but have been actually applied to the affairs of 
practical life, until it is now settled that the Hon. Horace Greeley 
has succeeded in producing upon his own farm, potatoes at some¬ 
thing like five dollars per bushel, and string beans at twenty cents 
a bunch. 
This simple announcement is a philosophy in itself—is a reiter¬ 
ation of that safe and fundamental maxim, known to all men of 
success, namely: “ Attempt the prosecution of no branch of 
business, with the practical details of which you are not thoroughly 
acquainted, and to the duties of which you are not fully inured.” 
Horace Greeley could never have published his Tribune so well, 
but for the active interest he took in the affairs of the practical 
