138 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
I 
sense of admiration and wonder, and enjoy more than ever 
doing in a small way what I can to promote its material, and 
above all, its agricultural prosperity. 
There is another point of which I wish to speak, for it de¬ 
termines in a greater or less degree the prosperity of any pur¬ 
suit. Mere dollars alone will not do it. If we wish agricul¬ 
tural prosperity we must have added to it certain indirect in¬ 
fluences. You who live at the east know that all the whaling 
business of the country is mainly carried on from one or two 
eastern ports. But there is nothing in the condition of Nan¬ 
tucket or New Bedford which makes them the great whaling 
ports as mere seaports. Their harbors are no better than they 
are in a thousand other places. It is no single advantage that 
any man can point out in the pursuit in which they are engag¬ 
ed. And yet, when we attempted ship-building in New York, 
* 
on the Hudson, where we had one of the best harbors in 
the world ; there where provisions were cheap, and vessels 
could be built cheap, we failed. Why? Because there was 
not that interest felt in the state in the pursuit that gave cour¬ 
age to those engaged in this dangerous kind of commerce. 
When a man went from the Hudson and attempted anything of 
the kind, there was no man when he came back to sympathize 
with him when he told of all that he had undergone. With 
all of those outside advantages the pursuit went down. But 
not so with him who sailed from Nantucket and New Bedford. 
He felt whenever he went to the arctic or antarctic parts of the 
world, if he stuck and brought in one of the great monarchs 
of the deep and showed some extraordinary skill, there went 
a thrill through his heart, for, he said, they will hear of this in 
Nantucket when he went back home, knowing that they there 
appreciated his skill and courage. 
Now if we want agriculture to succeed in our country, it 
must not only be made a paying pursuit, but it must interest 
all of the people, so that it gives dignity and honor to him who 
shall be foremost as a man of skill and judgment in that call¬ 
ing. The people of England, beyond all others, are fond of ru- 
