478 
STATE AGEICLUTUEAL SOCIETY. 
mine which of the machines are the best, without reference to whom it will 
suit or whom it wont suit. 
And these, my fellow citizens, are some of the benefits that arise by means 
of our State Fair. It brings together here once a year a class of men who 
are likely to be benefitted and improved by what they see. You can come 
here and mingle together and compare notes, and take advantage of late im¬ 
provements, and learn new modes of farming, and talk about all these mat¬ 
ters and perhaps get a little politics mixed up occasionally with the rest, and 
that don’t do you any hurt, and then you depart thinking of all the new ideas 
you have gathered. It improves the mind and cultivates the intellect; it 
induces pride in competition, and infuses new energy into all branches of 
industry. 
So also with the women. They come here and they go to the Temple of 
Fine Arts. They will go through and perhaps see the handy needle work of 
some young girl whose life has been devoted to it; and there they will see 
what they did not know before, and how much better it is than it could be 
done by them. You learn here by contact, by rubbing against each other. 
You learn a vast deal not only about your especial profession or occupation, 
but about everything else. It is true, my fellow citizens, that every man 
and woman who comes here for the purpose of learning something new or 
useful, will not go away disappointed. These are the benefits of an institu¬ 
tion like this. Here is the Secretary of this Society, whose life is devoted to 
the interests of agriculture in this State. His whole time is spent in it; he 
is laboring with heart and brain for the good of this cause. His zeal is only 
limited by his strength. He tells you how to work your farms on scientific 
principles, producing large results from comparatively little labor. And I 
might suggest here, that I know of no one more enthusiastically in favor of 
producing large results from little labor, than myself. [Laughter.] I tell 
you there is some philosophy in it. There is no sort of use for the men and 
women of this country to drudge from early morning to late at night, all the 
year round. Most of us would have just as much wealth and a great deal 
more enjoyment if we were to devote a little more of our time to study and 
reflection. 
Now then I want to give some of you a little advice. In going through the 
country you will come to many of your fine farms, which bear evidences of 
prosperity and thrift, and some of you know something and some do not—at 
least that is the way I find it. I find lots of people that don’t know enough 
to enjoy the right of suffrage, and they are not black either. [Laughter.] 
They work, and drudge, and live the lives of slaves, and neglect the higher 
and nobler duties of existence. There is no happiness, there is no comfort 
in this wide wide world equal to that to be found at a home, if rightly appre¬ 
ciated and understood. Go to Washington, and my friend will tell you there 
is no happiness there. There is labor, there is study, there is strife there. 
Go you to the farm, or the bar, go you into all the walks of the world, and 
there is toil and struggling for the mastery‘of life’s problems everywhere. 
