338.16 /»lM612a ADDllESS DEMVERKT) AT THE EXHIBITIOISr OF THE Saratoga Springs, Sept'13, 1866. By Hox. ANSON S. MILLER, LL. D., OF EOGKFORD, ILLINOIS. ALBANY: VAN BENTHUYSEN & SONS, PRINTERS. 18 ()( 3 . THE LIBRARY OF THE APR 23 1332 UNIVERSiTY OF ILLUMUib. y\ Saratoga Springs, September Vdth, 1866. Hon. Anson S. Miller, 'LL. D. : Dear Sir — You Avill greatly oblige the New York State Agricultural Society, by furnishing your most excellent and appropriate address before the Society at Saratoga for publication in the Transactions of the Society. It gives me great pleasure to present to you the following resolution, offered by the Hon. William Kelly of Dutchess county, which was unani- mously adopted by the Society ; Resolved, That the thanks of the Society be tendered to Judge Miller, for his able and eloquent address, this day delivered, and that a copy thereof be requested for publication in the volume of the Society’s Transac- tions. Saratoga Springs, September lUh, 1806. Hon. Benj. P. Johnson, Corresponding Secretary of the New York State Agricultural Society : Dear Sir — Your favor of yesterday is before me, and I herewith furnish a copy of my address before the New York State Agricultural Society, as requested. With my best wishes for the continued prosperity and extensive useful- ness of the Society, and my highest respects for you personally, I am truly. Your obedient servant. I am, very respectfully. Your most obedient servant, B. P. JOHNSON, Cor. Secretary. ANSON S. MILLER. >i9fcW Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/addressdeliveredOOmilLO ADDRESS. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Invited to address you on this occasion I appear and acknowledge the honor. Autumn crowned with plenty has come again, and arm in arm with the golden Season has also come the Agricultural Fair of the Empire State. From every direction the people have met at this famed locality to enjoy the Annual Harvest Home of this great Commonwealth; and we re- verently offer the tribute of our gratitude to the gracious Giver of the Autumn, for the genial showers of Spring, the fervid heats of Summer, and for all the ripened bounties of the year. We are assembled in the vicinity of renowned battle fields of the Ilevolutionary war, to promote and honor the arts of peace. Coming from my distant Western home, I visit for the first time this beautiful portion of my native State; and as I look around on this 6 delightful region, abounding in fine farms and dwellings, and flocks and herds, and in all the evidences of industry, wealth and refinement; and especially when I behold this wonderful Exliihilion of Agricultural and Horticultural productions and Mechanical skill and handi- work before us, and above all, this vast Con- course of the intelligent, energetic, beautiful and wise of the land, I am deeply impressed with the surj^assing changes which have been wrought here by Agriculture within a little more than half a Century. Eighty-nine years ago to-morrow Burgoyne, at the head of the British army, crossed the Hudson on a bridge of boats and encamped uj^on the heights and plains of Saratoga, within a few miles of Stillwater, where General Gates had advanced with his Continentals. The gallant Polander, Kosciusko, then held Bemis Heights, and Generals Arnold and Morgan were stationed in the neighborhood with their respective com- mands. A fierce though not decisive battle was fought on the 19th day of September, 1777, in which the British were repulsed. But on the 7th of the following October came on a struggle on another field of Saratoga, where American 7 valor won a final and brilliant victory, which was followed in a few days by the surrender of the British army. The rage and roar of the charging'hosts, and the thunders of artillery which shook yonder battle fields frightened no flocks nor herds nor people here. There was no excitement such as there would be to-day with terrific violence and slaughter near, for these grounds were all then occupied by dense primeval forests. The first framed house built in this vicinity was erected in 1784 by that noble patriot of the \ Bevolution, Gen. Philip Schuyler. Even as late as 1797 this spot of world-wide celebrity was distinguished only by these medicinal springs, gushing up amid their swampy surroundings. In that year the learned and gifted American chemist, Dr. Benjamin Silliman, first came here to analyze these healing waters, and then made this entry in his diary: ‘‘We mounted our ^ horses one day, and rode seven or eight miles through the pine forest, with its delightful fra- grance, aiid arrived at a place where they said there were some mineral springs. There was not even a village, but only two or three log houses standing among the pine trees. The 8 people were civil, and provided hay for our horses, and for ourselves bacon and eggs. They piloted us into a morass, where nature was unsubdued; and stepping continuously from bog to bog, we soon arrived at a spring which they called the Congress Spring.” Look at the picture of this region sixty-nine years ago, and contrast it with its appearance on this grand gala-day Festival, exhibiting the treasures and triumphs of Agriculture. Behold these Fair Grounds, with their Halls full of floral beauty, and the choice and abund- ant productions of the gardens, the vineyards, the orchards, the fields and the dairies; superior implements of husbandry, useful inventions, works of art, and mechanical ingenuity; admir- able specimens of domestic manufacture, and of the matchless grace and skill of Woman’s form- ing hand; yonder extensive ranges of stalls and ^ pens of the best and most improved domestic animals; and then, above and beyond all this, contrast the population'^ of the State of New York in 1797, with the present, when you have * The population of the State of New York in 1790 w’^as 340,120, and in 18G0, 3,880,735, an increase of more than ten fold. Present popu- lation of the State is nearly or quite 4,000,000. 9 about a million more people than all the Ameri- can colonies had in the Revolution. What has been the chief agency through which all these changes have been wrought and this industrial excellence produced ? All answer, Agriculture. It has swept away the mighty forests, prej3ared the fertile farms, reared the comfortable dwellings and the palatial man- sions, the edifices of Learning, and the temples of Religion, and filled the land with smiling villages and splendid cities. Here, as through- out the civilized world, the Ax and the Plow have been the pioneers of improvement. “ The wilderness and the solitary place have been glad for them, and the desert has rejoiced and blossomed as the rose.” All the excellence and glory of the civilized world has been pro- duced by patient, persevering industry; and but for this, to-day the earth would have been a wilderness, and its inhabitants wild beasts and savages. What a moral dignity there is in that which has made the world a home for enlight- ened man ! The sweat-drops on the brow of honest, intelligent Labor, are more to be honored than diamonds in the crowns of kings. 2 10 Look hi upon these improvements of half a century, so cheering to us all, we may well indulge emotions of just pride over the benefi- cence of Agriculture. What stronger proofs can be produced in its praise ? Facts, palpable and prominent, are before us; and your speaker can add nothing. No wealth of language, no aptness nor amplitude of illustration can so move the mind as the eloquence of this day’s spectacle. “From scenes like these onr country’s grandeur springs, That makes lier loved at home, revered abroad.” Farmers: Called from another profession to address you to-day on the subject of Agriculture, I diffidently discuss topics, in the practical know- ledge of which, you are doubtless my superiors. Legal science has little to do with the chem- ical analysis of soils, vegetables, or animals; or with the growing of grain or stock — Lawyers at the Bar, and Judges on the Bench, survey other fields than the peaceful and cheerful ones of Agriculture. They occupy a position where the warring elements of society meet for con- flict, and they have to deal with hostile feelings and clashing interests; violated contracts, bro- ken laws, and fearful crimes. They search not 11 the Atmosphere for nutritive gjises, nor the Earth for fertilizing substances ; and their chief concern with Land is to determine bounds and ownership. Notwithstanding this, I cherish a strong sympathy with the employment of my early years, and as a man, and an American citi- zen, I must revere above all others, that calling which feeds the world, lays the basis of univer- sal civilization, and affords the surest guaranty for my Country’s Prosperity and Freedom. Without detracting from the importance and excellence of other pursuits, we must give the first rank to Agriculture as the primitive em- ployment of man, the support of all the other branches of useful business, and the corner stone of the social edifice. Among the different call- ings there should be no envy, no discord. The divisions of labor have their origin in the vary- ing wants and fiiculties of mankind; all are parts of one great whole, whose harmonious relations are productive of the highest happi- ness. Whenever, therefore, contentions arise between the different occupations, let us • re- member the words of a great patriarch to his thriving kinsman, ‘‘Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between 12 my herclrnen and tby herdmen, for we be breth- ren. ” Yes, we are brethren, brethren in all the blessings of Civilization, brethren in the same inheritance of Free government, and in the same hopes of an immortal Life ! Avoiding the modes and details of Husbandry, so often discussed on occasions like this, and so well .understood by you in theory and practice, I propose speaking briefly of the History and Progress of Agriculture, and the Duties and Prospects of the American Farmer. Agriculture, in its progress from the earliest times to the present, furnishes not only the his- tory of man in the most important department of industry, but of the advancement of Mankind from the Savage to the Enlightened state. The history of Agriculture is the history of Civiliz- ation ; and throughout the annals of the human race appears tliis most interesting fact, that the cultivation of the soil has everywhere gone hand in hand with mental improvement. The Soil and the Mind have uniformly been improved together, and in a like degree; — a great historical truth in honor of Agriculture. In the beginning man commenced his course in outward destitution and nakedness. The ani- mals over which he was given the dominion, were furnished by nature with ample covering, and perfect instincts, leaving no use nor space for experience or improvement in their future being. The lordly Lion, the stately Elephant, the graceful Swan, the soaring Eagle, and all the living things of air and earth and ocean, are now no farther advanced in knowledge and hap- piness than the first created of their species. The industrious Bee needed nothing of mathe- matics or mechanics to form his first hexagonal cells, nor of chemistry or botany, to extract the sweets of flowers to fill them. The Nightin- gale’s song the first night in the groves of Eden, was warbled with the same heavenly melody and plaintive cadence that have charmed the ear with melting pathos ever since. But MAN, endowed with reason and gifted with latent faculties, destined to “ crown him with glory and honor,” was constitutionally progres- sive, and required experience and knowledge and development, at every step of his advance- ment. He drew his first nourishment from the bosom of mother Earth, but soon found that the spontaneous productions of the soil furnished him with only a precarious subsistence ; he 14 therefore provided against future wants by cul- tivating the ground and storing its fruits. Tlie eldest sons of our Grand Ancestor chose different branches of husbandry. One was “a tiller of the ground,” the other ‘‘a keeper of sheep.” Here was a division of labor. Men soon learned to manufacture clothino: ; their implements of peace and their weapons of war; and to exchange commodities; and thus Agriculture, Manufactures and Commerce, originating in human necessities, were coeval with the formation of society. After the deluge, “Noah began to be a hus- bandman, and he planted a vineyard.” In the pi ogress of society the ownershij^ of personal property was followed by that of real estate, and thus men established permanent habitations. From the shelter of trees and caves they advanced to tents and huts, and safe and comfort- able dwellings, and these became their castles of defense, and the established homes of them- selves and their families. The recognition and protection of Property in the Soil was the most important step in the progress of human improvements, as it secured 15 the fruits of agriculture, and laid the foundation: necessary for all social advancement. Agriculture was anterior to History. Herod-, otus, Homer and Hesiod wrote of it. The Egyptians, Chaldeans, Assyrians, and Chinese were among the first agricultural nations. The valleys of the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, were rich in cereal grains, and from specimens of Egyj)tian wheat three thousand years okh, found by antiquarians, we may well believe that the “corn” of Scripture stored through the seven years of plenty for the famine, by the illustrious Joseph, was nearly as full and fine as the wheat of New York, Michigan, Illinois or Oregon. Butter and cheese were made at an early day, but in small quantities, and as for quality, how do you suppose the Butter mentioned in Genesis, which Abraham set before his Angel guests, would compare with that of your own Orange and Oneida counties ; or how the Cheese refer- red to in Job, with the excellent manufacture of your own Williams, the originator of the cheese factory ? Writers a Thousand years before the Christian era described the Plow, but what was it in com- IG pari son with the best here on exhibition ? The plow driven by Elisha, “with twelve yoke of oxen,” would have availed nothing in breaking up the matted sod of centuries, on the prairies of the West. We have better plows and teams than his, driven not indeed by future prophets, but by those from New York and others who are nobly fulfilling the 'prophecies of American greatness. Most of our choice flowers and fruits, grains and vegetables, have been greatly improved by the culture of ages. Adam and Eve saw no such floral beauty and delicious fruitage as those which load the tables in your halls. Think how the Rose, the queen of flowers, the Apple, the most useful of orchard fruits, and the Maize and Potato, so important as food for man and beast, have been improved by culture; and how by care and breeding, all your domestic animals have been brought to their present state of 23orfection. Among the ancient writers on Agriculture, we may briefly notice Socrates, Xenophon, Cato, Seneca, Virgil, and other Greeks and Romans ; among the moderns. Sir Anthony Fitz Herbert, who published the first work on Agriculture in IV England, his “ Boke of Ilusbandrie,” in 1534 ; Sir Hugh Platte, Walter Blithe, Jethro Tull, Bober t Bake well, Arthur Young, the greatest of the early Englioh agricultural writers; Lord ^ Karnes and Sir John Sinclair, writers in Great Britain, and in continental Europe we may name Duhamel, Buffbn, Kretchmer, Saussure, Humboldt and others. Sir Humphrey Davy delivered his lectures on the “ Elements of Agri- culture ” before the Board of Agriculture, in England, from 1802 to 1812, when Agriculture for the first time attained the rank of a science. ' Davy investigated the elements of the soil, and applied the science of Chemistry to the improve- ment of Agriculture. He explained the func- tions of the roots and leaves of plants, and showed that vegetable tissues were made up principally by different combinations of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, and that but a small part of a plant was formed from the soil itself. He also showed how plants, soils and manures could be analyzed, and what manures would furnish the elements needed by the vari- ous kinds of plants. Ammonia, phosphorus and all the ingredients of the soil, matter organic 3 18 and inorganic, as related to Agriculture, were fully investigated by Davy, and after him by Chaptal, a profound and original writer. But all the writers on Agricultural Chemistry have been eclipsed by Prof. Liebig, who pub- lished his first work in 1840, and opened a new era for agricultural investigation. I have no time to dwell on the works of Davy, and Liebig, and Chaptal, and Johnson, and Dana, and of other excellent writers who have util- ized science to the purposes of Agriculture ; every farmer should have them in his library. Neither have I time to more than mention another work which every farmer should have — that of your own Dr. Fitch on Entomology. Time will scarcely permit me to do more than barely notice the fact of the formation of Agri- cultural Societies, the establishment of Agricul- tural Schools and Colleges, and the 23ublication of Agricultural Journals. The first Society for the improvement of Agriculture in the State of New York was formed in 1791, and a similar one in Massachu- setts in 1792. Such societies were formed in most of the States as early as the first j3art of this century, and as the new States have been 19 admitted into the Union, such societies have been formed at early periods — so that a spirit of competition in agricultural improvement has been excited throughout the country in County, State and National societies. There should be Town societies also. Many would compete in Towns who would not go to a County Fair, and in this way a spirit of emulation would be awak- ened in every neighborhood. This would do much to elevate the standard of Agriculture. The Town societies would bear somewhat of the same relation to those of the County, State and' Nation as the Common schools do to academies, colleges and universities. Town associations will do more for the intelligence of the farmers, and the circulation of agricultural periodicals throughout the States, than any other organiza- tions. Agricultural schools and colleges have been established in some of the States, and have been aided by governments. State or National. In Illinois, and other Western States, there have been liberal grants of United States land for the purpose. In your own State the magnificent gift of one of your own citizens, the lion. Ezra Cornell, of 20 half a million dollars and a farm of two hundred acres, for the purpose of Agricultural education, gives assurance that Agricultural education in this State will be placed on the most solid basis. These schools are in their infancy in our coun- try, but will ultimately be established in every State, and will do an immense good. There are nearly four hundred agricultural schools and colleges in Europe, in which chemistry, botany, geology, natural history and philosophy, politi- cal economy, practical surveying and engineer- ing, and veterinary practice, are thoroughly taught. But our main dependence for agricul- tural education among the masses of the people must be on standard agricultural works and pe- riodicals. These can and should be studied by every farmer. A single paper often imjDarts knowledge of more value than would pay a ten years’ subscription. Success to our able Agri- cultural Periodicals, they are the light and life of our improvements, and should receive every reasonable encouragement. Time will permit me to glance only at the improvements in the Implements of Husbandry which have kept full pace with Scientific Know- ledge. The old wooden mould-board Carey- 21 plow was succeeded by your own Jethro Wood’s cast iron one, and that has been followed by one of cast steel ; the sickle has given way to the reaper, the scythe to the mower, and the flail to •the thresher and sheller. These, and sowers, planters, cultivators, horse-rakes, and other labor-saving machines, enable the farmer to perform his work by brute force, wdth multiplied powers and enlarged operations, and greatly diminished manual labor. Necessity in Agriculture as in other depart- ments, has been the mother of invention ; with- out these labor-saving machines the vast fields of the west could not have been cultivated, nor their annual crops of millions of bushels of grain produced in market. Sorghum evaporators and refiners — some of which are here on exhibi- tion — have given a great impetus to the grow- ing of Cane in the West. And now standing here in the last half of the Nineteenth Century, we look back upon the vast progress and behold our own agriculture en- riched by the improvements and knowledge for wdiich Nations and Ages have combined their endeavors. All the improvements which we behold in this 22 exhibition, the productions of the soil, the supe- rior domestic animals, and agricultural imple- ments of American manufacture, raised to such perfection, exhibit Mind as clearly as if it were blazoned in golden characters on the living sky. The little rills of agricultural knowledge flowing down from a remote antiquity antecedent to History, and forming into larger and larger streams, and gathering accelerated force through Centuries of enlightenment, have united in an accumulated flood which rolls down on our times, like our own Mississippi, with a deep channel and a broad bosom. Farmers, Agriculture to you is a practical thing, a tangible reality. With others it may be a mere abstraction, but with you it is vital, the support of yourselves and your families. How to prepare your ground, how to plant and sow, and cultivate and harvest, how to manage your dairies and domestic animals, and above all how to honor your calling and to make happy « and ennobling homes for those most dear to you, are questions of the gravest concern. Your vocation has its embarrassments and peculiar trials. You cannot control the elements — un- seasonable frosts and rains and drouths often 23 blast your hopes, but it should be remembered that other occupations have their peculiar trials also. Success in every department of life re- quires strong faith and hope and courage — and all trials triumphantly passed, under the great law of Compensation, only make us the stronger. Agriculture is no longer a blind experiment; it is a Science, and science is knowledge. No farmer can succeed against the principles of Science; though ignorant of these principles, his success depends upon harmonizing with Nature’s laws. Science teaches us how to augment the productive powers of Nature. Book-knowledge in farming is regarded by some with unjust pre- judice. Books, indeed, are not plows, or teams, or laborers — but they direct them Does the wise traveler disregard the guide-board because it does not furnish him with a coach-and-four ? Its only office is to direct. And the farmers who seek success from books without the requi- site labor, or from labor without the requisite knowledge, are unwise. But if the farmer has peculiar trials he has peculiar advantages. His crops and herds and flocks, grow in value while he sleeps, and mother Earth generously receives from her farmer children things cast off as worth- 24 less i^nd even offensive, and returns to them in exchange her richest productions. Successful husbandry requires great industry and intelligence combined. Indeed, there is no business which demands more care, activity, economy, resolution, foresight and true wisdom, than yours, and we trust that on the principles of Political Economy the demand will regulate the supply. Amid his toils and trials the farmer especially in extended operations, needs much of the administrative ability of a Governor, the science of a Naturalist, the sagacity of a States- man, the ingenuity of a Mechanic, the tact of a Merchant, the patience of a Philosopher, and the faith of a Christian. There is no occupation better fitted to bring into vigorous and harmonious action all the j)Owers, physical and mental, and to develope a true manhood, than that which our revered Wash- ington pronounced “ the most healthful, the most useful, and the most noble employment of man.’^ He who can pursue his business reso- lutely through the cold of winter, and the heat of summer, and can go forth hopefully and fearr lessly and make his home and farm in the solitary forests or prairies, and there struggle bravely in the battle of life, exhibits a boldness and independence of character which, if not of every day occurrence, we would behold with wonder and admiration. Many of our most illustrious public men have had their early training on the farm and in the solitudes of nature, where they have acquired habits of persevering industry, strength of body and mind, resolution of purpose, and all the manly characteristics requisite for exalted sta- tion. Such training had George Washington, the young farmer and surveyor, in the wilds of Virginia, and such Abraham Lincoln, also a young farmer and survej^or, the first settler in a new county of Illinois. Indeed, Husbandry from the beginning has been honored by the good and great of the land. Abraham was “ very rich in cattle.” Moses was a shepherd. Saul and David, when kings, delighted in feeding their flocks and herds. Cyrus laid out his palace-grounds, and planted trees with his own hands. Shamgar was called from his herd to judge Israel; Gideon was threshing when summoned to lead the Jewish army against the Kings of Midian ; and Elisha left his plow to receive the mantle of an ascend- 4 ing Prophet. Socrates tilled the soil and taught philosopliy; Cineinnatus was called from his little farm on the Tiber, by a deputation of Senators, to become the Dictator, and to rout the enemies of beleaguered Rome. Paulus Emilius who captured the King of Macedonia, Scipio the conqueror of Carthage, and Cato the model Censor, were noble Roman farmers. Our own American history abounds in similar instances. I will mention two only. Putnam was plowing when the news of the battle of Lexington reached him. He stopped his team, took his horse from before his oxen which he left with the plow in the furrow, and without changing his clothing, rode abroad to rally the forces which he subsequentlj^ commanded on Bunker Hill. And last, though not least, your own lamented AYadsworth, a former President of this Society, the princely farmer and heroic patriot, left his magnificent domain on the Genesee for the discomforts of the camp and the perils of the battle field, that he might aid in crushing a rebellion at once the most causeless, and the most gigantic and atrocious, in the history of nations. AYe bewail his fall, and honor his noble name. 27 Mr. President, permit me to say a few words as to the experience of our Western farmers. They have found that deep plowing multiplies the sheaves, and that early sowing and planting secure good yields ; that rotation in crops is important, and that mixed husbandry is the saf- est ; that breeding from thorough-bred stock animals is the true mode for improvement, and that the breed which pays the best for good keeping is the most profitable ; that it is highly advantageous for farmers to keep an account of debit and credit with fields and animals, so as clearlj^ to determine the question of profit or loss, and that account books prepared for the purpose should be in the hands of every farmer. And finally, that liheraliiy in provid,- ing farming utensils, feeding teams, sheltering tock, fatting animals, manuring the soil, sow- ing, planting, and cultivating, and especially in paying for faithful laborers and good agricul- tural papers, is the best course. Pleasure and profit unite in liberality. It is the hand of the the LIBERAL as well as of the ‘‘ diligent ” that “ maketh rich.” Our Western farmers have also found that one hundred acres well cultivated, make better re- 28 turns than two hundred slighted; that thorough culture is better than mortgages on their hirms ; and that an offensive war against weeds is far less expensive than a defensive one ; that haj is a great deal cheaper made in summer than pur- chased in winter ; that good fences always pay better than lawsuits with neighbors; and that dogs are not the best variety of live fence. That paying promptly for a good agricultural paper, and educating children at the best schools, is loaning money at more than one hundred per cent. That one evening spent at home in im- proving the social and intellectual condition of the family, is far better than ten at a neighbor- ing tavern. And it has been especially found that farmers cannot be too radical in paying their debts, nor too conservative in incurring them. Notwithstanding our immense yields of wheat, our most important grain crop in the West is Indian Corn. When this is plenty, as it gene- rally is, the farmer has fat horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, poultry, and an abundance of the substan- tials of life. The Commissioner of Agriculture, at Washing- ton, reports the corn crop of Illinois for 1865 at 29 177,095,8^2'^ bushels. This is doubtless short of the quantity, which may be safely estimated, in round numbers, at 180,000,000 of bushels — figures which the promising corn crop of 1866 will probably reach, or even surpass. Consider for a moment that this wonderful yield is but one product in a single year, of a young State only partially cultivated, and that the State itself is a small portion of the Twelve Hundred Thou- sand square miles of our Countr}^ Iji^ig between the Alleghany and the Uocky mountains; — a vast region, unequalled on the globe for its Agri- cultural resources. Mineral riches and Commer- cial advantages, and you will agree with me that when this grand Domain shall be cultivated, we *The following computations have been made, by which some estimate of the vast corn crop of Illinois may be formed : Put this quantity of 177,095,852 bushels into cars, 350 bushels in a car, and a locomotive to every twenty cars, allowing each car to measure two rods, it would make a train more than 3,000 miles long, and it would I require over 25,000 locomotives to diaw the train. Or load the X 177,095,852 bushels into wagons, 441 bushels in each wagon, and allow each wagon and team two rods of space, it would make a pro- cession of over 4,000,000 wagons, and would reach more than 25,000 miles, or around the Globe. It would require 8,000,000 horses to draw the wagons, and nearly a million more than all the horses, mules and colts in the United States in 1860. And to furnish drivers, would require 4,000,000 men, or more than all that were in both the Union and rebel armies during the late war. Such was the corn crop of Illinois for 1865. 30 can depend on no foreign market for our over- plus products, but that we must provide now for a HOME market which a great Independent Nation- ality, encouraging all the branches of Industiy, can alone secure. There are products, however, more important to the farmer than wheat or corn, or choice ani- mals or delicious fruitao;e — these are elevatino; Ideas and ennobling Sentiments — products which can be grown through every month in the year uninjured by cold or heat, or rains or drouth. Ordinary business is but secondary to the growth of the higher faculties. The man is more im- portant than his occupation, and should not be merged in it. Manhood, in its true nobility, is above professional success and eminence. The purpose of labor should be something above itself, some noble end of which work is but the means, something lasting and exalted as the growth of the higher life. The farm is for the farmer, not the farmer for the farm, just as the hat is for the head, not the head for the hat. Constant physical exertion exhausts the brain, and leaves little energy for thought and study. Many a farmer allows his brain to be absorbed in a routine of drudgery, when he should keep it 31 invigorated for higher uses. He has a mind to be nourished while he performs his manual labors. The grand Mission of the many labor-saving machines and scientific discoveries for Agricul- ture, is to relieve the fixrmer from over toil, emancipate him from drudgery, and raise him to the dignity of his employment. The Farmer ought to live the grandest life, among the inspir- ing scenes of Nature, and the cheering facts of Science Standing in the vast Temple of the firmament, surrounded by the natural agents as his ministers, and producing food for the world, he seems sublimely invested with creative power next to the Deity, and entitled to the first rank in honor and happiness. The greatest want of the farmer to-day is not a lack of the knowledge of chemistry or vege- table physiology, or of any of the sciences con- nected with his calling. More than all these he needs social elevation and a better style of life. Homes more comfortable, tasteful and attractive, without extravagance, can in most cases be easily provided by the farmer, and his worthy wife and children will bless him for the provision. More should be done to make homesteads beautiful, with embellished grounds and gardens, so that the outward surrounding of the farmer’s dwelling, even if a cottage, shall harmonize with a bright and happy social atmosphere within. Beauty and Utility are everywhere joined in Nature, and are of the same birth. The blos- som precedes the fruit : the latter nourishes our bodies — the former delights our senses, refines our tastes, and cheers us with rational enjoy- ment. Let Beauty and Utility unite in adorning the farmers’ homes, and let their wives and their sons and daughters give their hearts and hands to the ennobling improvements. Success in Agriculture is not completed by addino; barn to barn and field to field. All this may be rationally desirable, but whatever his thrift, he is an unsuccessful man who has not improved himself from year to year, and con- stantly ministered to the elevation of his house- hold. The heart must be cultivated as well as the soil. Noxious weeds flourish spontaneously, but the golden grains and luscious fruits all come of culture. Our age demands the highest improvement in every department. Tremendous forces are oper- ating. Society is moving upward and onward, and the Farmer must move with it. Man is 33 rising in position and power, and annihilating time and space through the imponderable agents. His “ line has gone out through all the earth, and his words to the end of the world;” and even the Lightnings say unto him, “Here we are!” Man has made Electricity his bearer of despatches. Light his artist, and Heat his motive power, and thus he has tasked the elements themselves with human labors. We live in an age of World’s Fairs, Ocean Telegraphs, Railroads, Ship Canals and iron- clad War Steamers. Mind is controlling matter as never before, and producing wonderful results. ' We often hear it said that Corn is King, and Cotton is King. Mind alone, educated Mind is King; and Labor, enlightened Labor the Prime Minister through all the realms of Industry. Farmers, you have a large majority of the active men of the American Union. The Sun in his course looks down on more enterprising, independent farmers in the United States than in any other land. With you rests the respon- sibility of sustaining the laws and the liberties of our country. You are the lords of the soil, and know that politically, all that we have and 5 34 all that we are, and all that we hope to be in this life, depend upon the intelligence and patriotism of the majority. Ours is one coun- try, ONE evidently by Divine design. There are no natural boundaries for its division. The Mississippi, Avith its mighty tributaries of nearly twenty thousand miles of navigable Avaters, Avill forever roll on to secure the Union. You can no more divide our national territory advantage- ously than our dear old flag, or any one of our national songs. We knoAV you Avill be true to Liberty in the preservation of our Republic — - standing firmly by the principles of the Consti- tution, rejecting the false, the local and the temporary, and maintaining manfully the true, the universal and the eternal. What are all your agricultural improvements, your farms, your flocks and herds on a thousand hills and in a thousand A^alleys — Avhat are Agriculture, Manufactures and Commerce, your country and your sacred homes, without governmental pro- tection and our glorious Nationality ? Here Agriculture will achieve the proudest triumphs, developing the resources of our vast territory, and multiplying our wealth and popu- lation many and many fold. This continental 35 region between the two great oceans, amply suffi- cient for a Hundred States, and Two Hundred Millions of people, will exhibit agricultural pro- ducts unparalleled in quantity and variety. The wheat, the corn, the wool, the cotton, the, flax, the hemp, the sugar, the butter, the cheese, the beef, the pork, and all the staples, will be pro- duced in unexampled abundance ; and the farm- ers of the East and the West, the North and the South, amid the blessings and under the inspira- tion of FREE LABOR, will, we trust, for ages and ages to come, rejoice as Brethren in “ one Coun- try, one Constitution, and one Destiny” — State authority never causing Disunion, nor Federal power a hurtful Consolidation, but the compli- cated machinery of our political institutions operating with somewhat of the equilibrium and grandeur of the solar sj^stem in the heavens; the Planets never destroying the annual revolutions, nor the Sun the diurnal ; but all the planets revolving on their axes, and at the same time obedient to the control of a common center, and rolling harmoniously in their circles forever. Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Society: The enterprising sons of New York are every.- where in the West. You may traveT over-land university oc II I 3 0112 077515366 8G from Buffalo to 8an Francisco, and not pass a day without seeing farmers from your own great State. Your agricultural record, commencing with your first Society in 1791, is an interesting and noble one. Your example has excited emu- lation and awakened improvement, even in dis- tant regions. Our Western farmers have been gratified at their Fairs by the visits of your officers. We w^elcome them, and you, one and all, to the West, to visit its rich and boundless plains, and its majestic rivers, forming a vast country of health and beauty and fertility united in the highest degree. Your venerable Secretary is well-known to our leading Western farmers, and although he touches the point assigned by the Psalmist as the limit of manly life, we may well rejoice that “ his eye is not dim, nor his natural force abat- t ed.” Long may he yet pursue, with rare vigor and ability, his extended career of pre-eminent usefulness. And may your Society, Mr. President, continue to exert the highest influence for agricultural im- provements, so long as Seed-time and Harvest shall endure. THE imm OF THE APR 2 3 1932 LINlVERSilY OF ILLIKOIS.