The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1857-10-07

harvest jubilee. 1t is meet that business
| be suspended that the. cares OF life be
laid aside, and that you keep these the
Sabbath days of the farmer. The labors
of harvest are ended-the mowers scythc
no longer sends its music through the grass
and the fields, but a few weeks since
white with then haryestglories, and anon
cleaning like tented plains, have been
gathered, filing your granaries with IN
wonted fullness = how fitting that they
who have toilcd in the harycsts, should
wipe thekweat from their brows and min
gle the music of their rejoicing on these
autumn days, which you have set apart
and dedicated to agriculture and the kim
dred arts.
But beneficial as these fairs are rs a
means of social enjoyment they are far
more important in their other and more
utilitarian objects. You come here to COM
pare notes-to mingle together your ex-
periences. Engaged in the same ,pur-
suit, you have a common interest and
common objects of thought. Each brings
to the general stock the result of his OBJ
seryatioas aud experience and receives in
return the observations AMI experiences
ofall others. Nay, more, you carry back
with you to your farms aquickeneEinter-
est and a higher appreciation Of your ye-
cation. While you exert yourselves to
build up this society, it in time exerts a
reflex influence upon its members that
stimulates and incites to higher exertion.
Everywhere else, in every department of
human industry, this mighty agent, asso-
citation, which you have called to your aid,
is at work witha Titan's power. In arts
in society, in literature, in every scheme
Of benevolance and usefulness, it is ac-
completing undreamed of results. Every
successful movement clothes itself with
the panoply ef organ eaton. We have
associations for all purposes from societies
for sending missionaries to the heather,
Down to assemblies of our solid men. ID
To improve the breed of the Shanghai hem
And we have even head Of societies for
improving our human stock by offering
prizes for the best looking babies. This
is the agent that builds our railroads;
that opens our mines; that, settles our
new states; that is now engaged in its
crowning work, laying that slender wire
beneath the ocean waters-tha fial bridge
on which shall pass from continent that
subtle fluid, which moves like thought, as
silent and rs swift. It is the most cfli-
cient ally Of progress. It first moulds
the multitude to one fixed central purpose
then grasping the energy Of each indiyid7-
ual of that multitude, fashions them into
one single mass of concentrated power
whose momentum nothing can withstand.
Whatever system it touches, it energies
With ncw life. Whatever. enterprise. it
takes hold Of it pushes on to the grandest
results. 1t has already accomplished
much for agricultural pursuits in the past
and rightly appropriated, it will accom-
plish more in the future. ngos1
Its truth that agriculture, the most
ancient and tho most honorable of i'm
rlyaents, has net been The mosthonored.
1t has n,ver occupied the place in the op-
inon of the world which it deserves. And
WHY is this? L answer because 1t has
neter been cleuated to tie dignity of a
procession. The farmer has not nagni-
fed his office. 1t is the occupation Ct
three fourths of the whole population of
the country; but how many regard itas
simply labor, and are farmers merely
by accident, without regard to fitnesss
and how few look upon it as a profession
and science. oAnsTye it is the profess
ion of all professions--the heart whose
beatings are felt through all the great
systems of human industry, giving life
ard vigor to all, and whose prosperity or
depression all are quick to feel. When
the agricultural interests are PROSTATE,
the noise of the wheel and the spindle in
the distant mandatory is still, and COM
mence in all its mighty arteries, is slug
gish aud dull. 1t is the only natural oc-
cupation of the race; all others are artifi-
cial, growing out of the acquired wants
Of society. 1t is a profession that is con-
ducive more than any other to health, and
in this country is a sure avenue to compe-
tence. No one of the other professions,
merchant, mechanic, or lawyer, can attend
q fair Ike this, without feeling how mean
his profession is compared with this. 1t
is science, too, involving a knowledge of
all the physical sciences, covering the range
of philosophy, chemistry and geology
The nature and constitution Of soils, their
adaptation to the various products, the ma
ture and effect ofmauures the Ingredients
that enter into the constitution of plants,
the philosophy of vegetation that great
mystery of growth-these are some of
tho subjects with which agriculture has to
do. r.-s a-f esF
What then is necessary to place this in
the first rank of professions? | answer
first, well digested system of assoeia-
tons in town, county, state and nation,
whose object it shall be to call public at
tention more fully to it, to give it posi-
ton and prominence, to make its inhu-
ence felt, and to distinguish it as a pecu-
liar professlon: and secondly, a more in
teHeetual spirit among farmers. ass .las
There is in the intellectual world OF to-
day a marvellous activity. The press is
teemine with new thoughts, and new pub
locations are flooding tho land. He who
would not fall behind in this march of IN
telliicence-who would keep step 10 the
music of this great progress, must devote
some portion of his time to reading and
acquiring general information. lnielli-