116 
COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
ABSTRACT OF COUNTY REPORTS. 
THE FARMER AND HIS HOME. 
jb'rom an Address before the Columbia County Agricultural Society, September 24th, 1858. 
by iion. john p. McGregor. 
Not only do our farms produce cattle and horses, but they are 
also the nurseries of that nobler animal, man. It is true that 
many men are born and raised in cities, but let them he fenced 
in there, and the infusion of new and vigorous life from the 
country be cut olf, and the race would soon degenerate, if not 
become extinct. It is the country that furnishes the blooded 
stock of men, who have the speed and bottom, physically and 
intellectually, to run the race in cities and win the prize. It 
is country blood that gives the courage and endurance of body 
and mind necessary to successful conflict with difficulties and 
competition in great enterprises. It was country blood that 
gave to such men as Webster and Wright their strength, dig¬ 
nity and power. It was country blood that sustained Cyrus 
W. Field under all trials and diasters, when even the well- 
known courage and obstinacy of John Bull gave out, and which 
brought to a successful conclusion the laying of the Atlantic 
Telegraph cable. 
We are placed in a region the most favorable in the world to 
final and complete success in civilized and enlightend hus¬ 
bandry. I do not believe that there can be found on the face 
of the earth so glorious a country, considering soil, climate, 
productions, geographical and commercial situation, as the 
