474 
STATE AGKICULTUEAL SOCIETY 
I believe farmers are coming to the conclusion that it is better to cultivate 
one acre well than to cultivate two acres poorly. They may be right about 
that. I think they are. I am only clear npon one point, and that is, that it 
is better to cultivate two acres well than it is to cultivate one acre well. To 
cultivate two acres well, requires more labor than to cultivate one acre in 
the same way, and therefore it is my ambition for the country to do 
this thing. What I think you want, and we all want, to develop the 
country, is muscle. I don’t object to having a little more mind—and 
the more you have of it the better—but we want more muscle also. 
Sol want to see the doors of the republic stand wide open for the ad¬ 
mission of help, let it come from what quarter of the earth it will. Take it 
cooked, if you can get it; take it raw, if you cannot get it cooked. Educated 
help, I am satisfied, is better than uneducated help, and uneducated help is 
better than none at all. Take the material in the best form you can get it, 
and mould it to the American fashion after you get it here. It is not a diffi¬ 
cult thing to educate a man ; I know it is an easier thing to educate a boy 
and therefore I like to see the business of education commenced young; but 
it is never too late to commence it. And so firmly do I believe that you are 
suffering here for want of muscle in your agricultural and mechanical inter¬ 
ests, and every other interest, that I am anxious to see it come to our coun¬ 
try from whatever quarter of the earth it may come, or in whatever shape it 
may come. 
Fellow citizens, to-day I wished to be excused from occupying your atten¬ 
tion any length of time; I plead with your Secretary not to bring me up 
here at all, but he was remorseless, relentless, pitiless. If he trains you 
farmers as he does me, my advice to you is that you dispense with his servi¬ 
ces as soon as possible. [Laughter.] I would have dispensed with his 
services at ten o’clock this morning if I could, but he would not be dispensed 
at all. [Laughter.] I consented finally to appear before you, because I 
thought if I did not consent to appear at all, that you would think I did not 
take any interest in this business of farming. I appeared trembling because 
I am young, and because I am modest ; but that was not the great reason;— 
because by profession I am just now a politician; because, I confess to you, 
I am chuck full of politics; because I was afraid I could not talk to you at all 
for fifteen minutes, without great danger of breaking into an invocation for 
you to go for Grant and Colfax or for Seymour and Blair, I don’t know 
exactly which, and I wanted to avoid that danger. And yet I was anxious to 
show you that I did feel an interest on this great subject, and for that reason 
I finally concluded to come up here. And let me tell you honestly and 
truly, I do not lack interest, but I gladly give way to the only man I ever 
saw more modest than myself, who will now address you, Hon. George B. 
Smith of Madison. [Laughter and cheers.] 
