Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1867-10-23

ADDRESS,
DeliUered at the Champaign County Fair,
October Sd, 1867.
ADDRESS,
BY JOHN H. KLIPPART.

BY JOHN h. KLIPPARI.
Agriculture is the law of all civilization
If we read the history Of the world care
fully and attentively we will find tina
those nations who directed their attention
most largely to agriculture, became the
most civilized;-in a word those nations
that were good agriculturists, possessed ar
Ieminent degree of civilization, whilst those
without agriculture remained barbaTians
Egypt is referred to, by historians as the
cradle of civilization. Why? Were the
Egyptians a race of people possessing g
higher degree of intellectual ability than
other races? IF so, then, new races mus
have been created since their day; and we
certainly have no record Of any such Oc-
cuTrence. But, the Egyptians possessed
the invaluable, ineXhausuble river Nile
which annually OverhOwed its banks, and
by this means feTiliEed their fields, and
/ rendered agriculture very simple-its pTac-
tiee very productive in results. Because it
was simple and rewarded the labOrers toll
with granaries, which supplied the then
! known world, the Egyptians attracted to
/ themselves the wisest and best of mankind,
and laid a permanent foundation for COM
/ merce. This commerce in its turn intro
duced and developed many Of the mechan-
/ ical arts; which latter were the basis OF
many of the sciences. From Egypt as
/ from a common centre radiated in all di-
rections the elemental rays of civilization,
! science, arts, commerce and agriculture.
/ Wherever these sciences and ats were in
drOduced unRccOmpanied by agriculture,
| they were soon lost, but on the other hand,
| wherever they were accompanied by agri-
culture proper they fiouTished-develOped
the intellectual abilities of the nations
] n vr-1,Cr,, fhaEv in trnInnnH and
in a word civilized them.
There is an intimate connection between
agriculture and the mechanic arts, and the
one cannot flourish unaided and unasSisted
by the other. So long as Greece and Rome
gave a due share of attention to these
branches of productive industry, so long
did they flourish; so long also were the arts
esteemed, and developed to the greatest
degree of excellence of which these nations
at that time were susceptible, and their de-
velOpment of the sciences astOnished the
world. The success. growth and develop
ment of these nations, were much more
intimately connected with agriculture than
even they, themselves supposed. From
the moment that agriculture was entirely
c0ntided To their slaves, from that moment
did the decay and decline of those Empires
commence. Greece passed through many
severe OTdeals under LvcurgUs and other
rulers, and vet fiouTiShed, because her az
ricuiture had enlisted in its behalf the best
brains. and most skillful hands in Greece.
After the death of Alexander, she rapidly
declined, because agriculture no longer re-
ceived that attention which was afOretime
bestowed on it. When the Romans re-
tanned their prisoners of war as slaves, and
entrusted the agriculture of the Empire to
their ignorant and unskilled hands, her
a. 4 e,1T rf7T1v
long as German freemen titled the soil they
owned. all Germany fiOurished, but when
the soil was entrusted to the cOmpulsive
labor of the slave, then a cimmerian dark
ness settled over the land, and it was only
when the proprietor hinselfagain followed
the pillow tail that there was a revival Of
letters, and among the first fruits of the
latter was the further step in civilization,
the REFORMATION. To-day Germany has
enlisted her best minds and most skillful
hands in the pursuit of agriculture and the
application to it, of all the treasures of art
and science as yet known, and now the
agriculture of Germany occupies the front
rank in the world, and the time will not
soon come when it will bedOubted whether
Thaer, Liebig, Mulder, Hoffman, Stock
hardt, Emil Wolff, and Gronven were
myths, or real beings, as many have
doubted the existence of King Arthur of
England
The government of any country so far as
its prosperity is concerned is a secondary
matter; but its agriculture is of primary,
and the very highest and greatest impOr-
tance. Underthe most tyFannic and severe /
governments Egypt maintained position
challenging a respectful consideration !
from other nations; she maintained her
position so long as she devoted great atten-
ton to agriculture; but the very moment
she neglected her agriculture ard relied
upon her other resources, the black waves
of ignorance and yet blaeker ones of degra- |
datiOn rolled over her until she was nearly |
swept into oblivion. In Germany during |
the feudal ages-and feudality was perhaps |
the mildest form of a tyrannic COVE rnment, |
agriculture was neglected and the Empire |
resolved itself into almost countless petty /
veTnments-nOminally an Empire and /
ruled by courtesy by an Emperor but in |
reality governed by an hundred petty |
tyrants When the land was divided into |
small parcels, and the owner cultivated it /
with his own hands then agriculture again /
iOuTished, and Germany became Oneof the /
most powerful governments on the face Of I
the globe. The position Of Germany in /
the sisterhOOd of nations, her intelligence,
her wonderful progress in arts and sciences,
II ulle III u uiuGll SiCticI ut1EIGC 10 LIle per-
fectiOn of her agriculture than to any other
cause whatever. Sweep away her agricul-
ture, and tyranny, anarchy, degradation,
dissolution and oblivion await her. In
France, a failure of the crops always in
augurates TevolutiOn-frOm this we can
see how government is dependent upon
successful agriculture, whilst agriculture is
by no means dependent upon government.
To me, for one, it is very clear that pro-
gress in agriculture cannot be made with
out intelligence; but I must not be under
stood as confounding intelligence with
''bO0E lsGTninq.p [ have known persons
who possessed rather more than an average
share IF intelligence, and had at the same
time very little book learning; whilst some
Of the greatest "huok worms" that ! ever
knew, had comparatively very little intel
lfgrnce Book learning is simply an aid to
whilst intelligence itself is
I,rgv-lrdua - observation, experience "a \
ready comprehension. When we are
tsu,yhr how. what when and where to |
observe when we are taught how to
nrofit bv eXperience-when we are taught |
how to connect what we have observed |
with what we have experienced, so as to .
furnish us with a certain and unerring !
guide for future usefulness, then, and not |
till then, have we become intelligent.
The first element of progress in agricul-
ture is OBSERVATION; and yet it is a singu-
lar fact, that of all classes of the industrial I
uati Ms, the agricultuTists Of this nation .
have profited less by observation than any
other cIa-s-aud hence it is, that so little /