Addresses—importance of agriculture. 439 
statemanship in the management of all its internal affairs. They 
should be qualified to fill all positions of trust and power, and see 
that the affairs of state and nation are managed with economy 
and frugality, to the end that labor may be protected in all its 
varied branches. The relations of other industries and business 
interests are so interwoven with agriculture that a community of 
interest exists between them; but we should bear in mind that 
the latter, agriculture, so overshadows all others that its interests 
should be protected by all legitimate modes, and the labor inci¬ 
dent to its full development allowed to reap as large results as la¬ 
bor bestowed upon any of the different avocations. We hear 
much said on every hand that farming don’t pay. If it doesn’t 
pay, why is it? Look around you carefully for a solution of the 
trouble. Is it because you do not possess the taste, education or 
ability to do your work when it ought to be done, with the skill 
and inclination to care for stock, tools, &c., necessary in your 
farming operations, with a proper knowledge of the markets, and 
the best mode of turning your surplus products into the most 
money? If these, or similar causes are operating to defeat you 
of liberal returns for your labor, look around you and apply the 
remedy. This you can do by intelligent and well directed labor, 
thought, study and the knowledge obtained by the observation 
and experience of others given us in the numerous works upon 
agriculture and from the weekly agricultural papers of the coun¬ 
try, one, at least, of which should find its way to every fireside. 
I assure you these works will furnish you food for thought and 
research, by which the mind will be enriched and the profits of 
your business correspondingly increased. 
Farmers must think, study and investigate the underlying prin¬ 
ciples of their avocation. To illustrate this more forcibly, allow 
me to relate an incident of Henry Ward Beecher, who, when vis¬ 
iting the White Mountains some years since, was urgently solic¬ 
ited by a friend to address the people the following Sabbath, and 
consented, conditioned that a contemplated visit to a point of in¬ 
terest be postponed until another time, for he said he must have 
time to prepare for the service, as he never allowed himself to go 
into the pulpit without thought and preparation. Of course the 
conditions were complied with, and on Wednesday morning of 
