428 WISCOIISIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
I mention this merely to illustrate my idea in regard to the great 
advantage it is to us as a nation to have such a large proportion of 
those engaged in agricultural pursuits directly interested in the re¬ 
sults of their labors. Thej^ are the owners and occupiers a,nd work¬ 
ers of the land. Self interest calls out all their energy and skill. 
They make every stroke tell. A nation of such farmers ought to 
be a rich nation. 
The American agriculture of the future will not be English agri¬ 
culture, or European, or Chinese agriculture, it will be American 
agriculture. We shall think for ourselves. One of the oldest and 
most successful farmers in the state of New York is a Scotchman. 
But he does not use Scotch plow’s or adopt the Scotch system of 
rotation. He uses his Scotch knowledge and experience. But his 
farming is essentially American. We have many good English 
farmers among us, but w’e have no English farming. 
We have to think for ourselves; we have to study principles and 
apply them. Liebig has more readers here than in Germany. 
The results of Lawes and Gilbert’s experiments at Bothamstead 
are more carefully studied in this country than in England. And 
there is a reason for this. The English farmer can apply Lawes 
superphosphate to his turnip crop without studying Lawes and 
Gilbert’s account of their thirty years’ experiments. But here if 
we would get any benefit from these wonderful investigations, we 
must study them and master the principles of agricultural science. 
This we are to some extent doing. The large circulation of our 
numerous agricultural papers proves that American farmers are 
great readers as well as great workers. They do not spend their 
evenings at the village tavern. Their houses may be isolated, but 
thev are the homes of much that is noble and true. We need have 
«/ 
no fears in regard to the rising generation of American farmers. 
“ But are not your sons leaving the farm?” Certainly, and do not 
English farmers’ sons leave the farm? The sons and daughters of 
Queen Victoria cannot all be kings and queens, and the sons and 
daughters of farmers cannot all be farmers and farmers’ wives. I 
do not object to young men leaving the farm for the cities, nor to 
successful business men turning farmers. We need more of the 
the latter class in the country. 
But what of the active, enterprising, well educated young man 
who sticks to the farm, or who adopts agriculture as the business 
