Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-11-19
friends comfortable and to "feel at home y

with us for few days.
And now, Gentlemen, do you ask me
what the Cape Fear people expect to &C
complish by this organization and the
holding of these Annual Fairs ? will tell
you what we hope to effect,-yea, what we
expect to accomplish
We desire to improve the methods of
culture, and thus increase the amount of
agricultural and horticultural productions
of this country.
We desire to improve the mechanical
and manufacturing skill of North Carolina,
and thereby enable her to occupy the po-
sition she of right should hold with her
sister commonwealth of the Union.
We desire to enlarge the field Of COM
mercial operations of the city and port of
Wilmington, by assembling the people
here annually, where all may see and know
each other, and learn the advantages and
facilities for business that our Cape Fear
country affords.
In word, we desire to inaugurate per-
petual war upon Ignorance, Idleness and
Prejudice.
The men of this Association feel as we
all should feel, that intelligent husbandry
and skilled labor must be introduced among
us, before our people can realize in ma
terial sense the natural advantages of soil,
climate, and easy access to market which
they possess.
A new system OF labor was introduced
just as we had emerged from the most gil
gantic civil war of modern times, with
homes desolated, affairs and firesides in
ruins with fields more frequently plowed
by artillery than by the implements of
husbandry our manufacturing establish
ments almost wholly given to the flames !;
our young men fallen in battle, and our
people reduced to perjury!
What then was the duty of the hour ?
What work devolved upon US? Should
we, like whipped school boys, sit down
and whine and whimper at our hard fate !?
Should we, the defendants Of the men
of the first revolutionary who fought
and won their independence, quail before
difficulties s1ch as these Should we, the
people of North Carolina, who sent nearly
one hundred thousand stalwart men to the
field in the late struggle, hesitate i'll our
duty to ourselves and our posterity?
No No Heaven forbid it Our
duty was and is too plain to be mistaken.
We who had literally beaten our prun-
ing hooks and our pillow shares into swords
and spears, and sent the flower of our
youth 10 the field in defence Of cause we
believed just and righteous. Should we
hesitate in the work of re building our
homes should we. the people of this old
dominion, after doing our duty to the pow
ers that existed, falter in our duty to our
selves and our Children, by failing prompt
ly to reconvert our war-weapOnS into
pruning hooks, and by going forth in our
strength to subdue and replenish the earth
LOOK not mournfully into the Fast
It comes not back again;
Wisely improve the Present it is thine
Go forth to meet the dark and shadoWy Future
Without fear and with manly heart"
To encourage this good work, and for
mutual instruction in the best methods of
doing it, are we here too day.
We welcome all exhibitors and all visi-
tors, from whatever county or State they
come.
We desire to meet all here as brethren
of one great household, as children OF q
common ancestry and heritage, who seek
to learn and be learned, who desire to
know and be known.
We meet as men for q common purpose,
and that purposeis to make our people pros
porous and our country great
No party political ends to serve, we
have only alluded to the past to show more
clearly our duty to the present and future.
We desire above all things the develop
ment of our agricultural resources.
We desire the education of our young
men as farmers and mechanics to make
them useful, rather than ornamental mem
bers of society.
With this view we look forward to Che
Inauguration of an Agricultural School up
on these grounds at no distant day.
We think that portion of the fund do
mated to the States by Congress for Agri-
cultural Colleges should be given to such
Associations as ours for the purpose of edu-
eating our young men and boys in the
science of Agriculture and the Mechanic
arts.
We may by such aid raise up an intelli
gent population to occupy the places we
now occupy, and to make the old and less
efficient system of agriculture give place to
new and improved methods.
In this way and by such aid our country
will make rapid strides in the direction of
her future greatness and wealth as an agri-
cultural region.
To the ladies We would say, you have
noble work to perform in helping on the i'm
provements and making prosperous and
beautiful your own homes.
Cultivate your flower gardens, not only
for the pleasure these products bring you,
but that you may make it a source of much
profit.
You may. if need be. thus obtain the
means of educating your children.
The people of less favored chimes desire
to have the flowers of the South. They
are now used, when possible to be obtained,
by the wealthy at the Banquet, the Bridal,
and at the Grave.
They would be in far greater use and by
all classes if they were within their
means.
Let our Ladies see to it that they are
raised for expectation, and become means
of increasing the comforts if not the wealth
of our country.
Thus the very sunbeams may be coined
into gold dollars.
We must, as an organization, press for
ward the good work we have undertaken.
We must never rest in our endeavors until
we can see the country we inhabit made
to blossom with all manner of useful and
valuable productions.
We may gather here annually and have
a grand exposition of the gifts of God
lin the works of nature)-and of our own
hands under His blessings.
Here we may assemble for mutual in
struction, consultation and congratulation.
Here we can meet annually for social re-
union and pleasant greetings
Each autumn latter manfully struggling
with all the ills of life for twelve months