State Convention—Better Education, Etc. * 153 - 
or horses, or else with the slow and laborious flail. No mowing- 
machines had then taken the place of the scythe. Our plows in¬ 
stead of being the beautifully polished steel instruments of to-day, 
were rude, uncouth things composed of wood and iron, principally 
the former, and were utterly incapable of doing their work either 
as easily or as well as the steel plows of to-day. Other tools of the 
farm were as a whole very far from being what they are to-day. 
There was some good stock at that time, but the vast majority of it 
of all kinds has been much improved. There had been a few at¬ 
tempts to start and support agricultural papers, but the living 
T 
thriving agricultural paper had not then been born. Works on 
agriculture were very few, and instead of being scattered broadcast 
through the land, were principally confined to the educated and the 
wealthy. In short, there is no doubt but that the system of agri¬ 
culture has been improved more within the last half century than * 
within the same length of time at any period in the history of our 
race. If this is a fact, as it undoubtedly is, it may be asked, are not 
the farmers keeping pace in improvements with other departments 
of industry? This is the main point that I wish to discuss, and to 
which I wish to call your attention for a few minutes to-day. 
This world, or at least the civilized portion of it, is in a very dif¬ 
ferent condition from what it was fifty years ago. The discovery 
of steam-power, and its application to ocean navigation, to rail¬ 
roads, and to almost countless other labors where it it used to econ¬ 
omize human strength, the invention of the telegraph and its 
almost miraculous power in assisting the press to distribute infor¬ 
mation, the labors of the cotton-gin, power-loom, and many other 
things that might be named in this connection, have all combined 
not only to change the face of society, but have absolutely revolu¬ 
tionized the civilized world. Each one of these improvements in 
its turn, while it has added much to the sum of human hapiness, has 
made new wants, and these must be met by new expenses which are 
to be shared by the farmer in common with others, but which can 
only be secured by an increased expenditure. These expenses must 
be met from the profits of the farm, and this can only be done by 
the better education of the farmer. Nor is this all. Within the 
* 
last fifteen y&irs our political world has been rocked to and fro as 
if by an earthquake; and there have been times when it seemed to 
patriots as if our great republic was upon the eve of its final deso- 
