326 
Annual Report of the 
unhallowed surroundings of a majority of rural homes. You may 
say that money makes the difference. Well, I am prepared from 
experimental knowledge to contradict the major part of the propo¬ 
sition. I know that taste and energy does more than money to 
make home-surroundings charming. The spirit of shabby, lazy in¬ 
difference is rampant in the country, and one reason for it seems to 
be, the lack of proximity of homes. Jaxtaposition of homes begets 
a spirit of emulation and each family strives to have at least as nice 
surroundings as the family alongside of them, and thus more care 
and attention is bestowed on the place. 
The spread of farmers’ homes over the country seems to be about 
midway between nomadic life and the higher life of great culture and 
refinement; about half way between the barbarity of the Indian 
and aesthetic life of the higher grades of intelligence. Added to all 
this, shiftlessness, thriftlessness and abject laziness are largely 
chargeable with the untidy surroundings of the farmer’s domicil. I 
have been there and know it. I think the farmer who keeps pigs, 
poultry, &c., around his door, who has no lawn or garden, or cheer¬ 
ful playground for his children to be interested in and enjoy, has 
no business to complain if his sons should happen to develop a 
grade of taste that rises above that shameful condition of life and 
gravitate to the city where greater congeniality allures and invites 
them. 
But aside from these considerations, when farmers’ sons develop 
into unusual brain-power and force as they so often do in spite of 
poor encouragement, you might as well try to eclipse the sun with 
a fig leaf or restrain the eagles flight with a spider’s thread as to try 
to bind them to the dull clods of the valley with the leash of present 
agricultural charms and allurements. 
Secretary Field. The time for final adjournment has now ar¬ 
rived, and I hope you will all go home full of enthusiasm in re¬ 
lation to what has transpired here. I hope and believe you will go 
to the clubs and the different societies you represent, and tell them 
what a good time we have had, and thus stimulate them to come 
here another year or send you here again, and in that way we shall 
be able to assist a great deal in the good work of advancing the in¬ 
dustrial interests of the state. 
The papers read, have been of more than ordinary interest, and the 
discussions spirited, entertaining and instructive, making the con¬ 
vention more profitable than ever held in the state. 
