The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1869-10-29
ADDRESS OF
Hon. JOHN H. KGIPPART,

Delivered before the Hancock Count
s. 1869.
Agriculture is the primitive avoc.
Y ton of all civilized nations and ye
comparatively few nations are suff
ciently devoted to agriculture to gu,
r ceed in developing it in its highes
e degree ofproductiveness.
b Each of the several races of man
l. kind appears to have mission t.
iperform. One race excels in tn
n arts of war; another excels in th
arts of peace. One race excels il
R mining, grubbing and digging; an
other excels in literature. On
excels in political intrigues; anothe
excels in the sports of the chase
: One excels in music, painting ant
poetry; another excels in Commercial
transactions. One excels in astheti,
: studies; another in agricultural
affairs.
Notwithstanding the fact that al
. civilized nations must engage, to a
greater or lesser extent, in the tillagt
of the soil, there are some races thai
regard every agricultural operation
as actual drudgery, willis: others
engage in it with cheerfulness and
, alacrity, and apparently prefer it to
all other avocations.
We read in the Bible OF Jacobs
cattle, and of the fiocks and herds of
the patriarchs; but the Hebrew race
appears to have entirely abandoned
agriculture In every sense. In all
my travels, and in the entire range
of my acqnaintances, l do not know
of single Hebrew Tor Jew, as we
term them who is a farmer or stock
man neither do l know of single
Jewish or Hebrew family who are
engaged otherwise than in some
commercial or financial avocation.
We real in history that after the
wars were over, Cincinnatus, the
victorious Roman General, returned
to the plow. From this circumstance,
and the writings of Virgil, we are
taught to believe that the Romans
were well skilled in the art of agri
culture; but at the present day we
know nothing of Roman agriculture,
except, indeed, We admit that the
present race of Italians are the de-
scendants of the Romans-a position
which no well-read historian would
assume, and which no anthropologist
would, for a moment, entertain.
Joseph's brethren journeyed into
Egypt to purchase corn during the
famine in their native land and for
many hundreds of years after this
event, Egypt was the granary of the
world. But, as the Egyptian race
became extinct, or absorbed by other
races, the agriculture of Egypt de-
clined until it has become so insig
nInCauJ Jnat No otaVfS.tOi.-.- ---i-~- 3.
into account any longer. 1t is entire
ly too insignificant for consideration.
The Saxon race is the father of
agriculture-during at least the past
three thousand years. 1t is race
which prefers either a seafaring or
an agricultural life. We find that
the terms plow, harrow, drill, wagon,
team, harvest, hay, straw, wheat,
buckwheat, oats, barn, thresh, fail,
horse, mare, colt, bull, cow, calf, OK,
steer, heifer-in a word, all the ordi-
nary terms used in agriculture and
agricultural operations, are found in
the Anglo Saxon language.
The Saxon tongue furnishes the
nomenclature, not only for farming.
but for navigation and many of the
mechanical pursuits. The English
language is largely made up from
the Latin and Greek, SO much so,that
many of our educational men insist
upon it, that no one can fully under
stand the English language, except
by study of Latin and Greek. 1t,
then, the Latins and Greeks were
agriculturists, why would not their
terms of agricultural operations be
found in our language We have
Latin and French terms in law, we
have Latin and Greek in the medical
and other sciences, but none of them
in agriculture. 1t is an admitted
fact that that race or people which
invents anything, as rule, furnishes,
at the same time, the corresponding
nomenclature or technical terms.
The Saxon is reasOner reason
er is always a doubter and doubt
er will never act until he is fully
convinced that his action will be
right and proper. The Saxon far
mer is said to be obstinate. He is
simply doubling, and adopts such
ideas or opinions in his mental
action, and such implements or tools
in his avocatiOn, as he feels, from
investigation, are safe, reliable, and
will accomplish the intended purpose.
He insists that no man can be safe
physician who has not spent from
five to seven years in severe study,
and has had the benefits OF clinics,
or hospital practice. He believes
that boys should serve a regular
apprenticeship of three, five or seven
years, according to the complexity
of the art, or skillful manipulation
requisite, before they should attempt
to execute anything in that art with
out an instructor or overseer. Hence,
the Saxon farmer has no faith in
book learning He feels sure that no
one can know anything about farm
ing unless he has been reared on a
farm. He has no intuition himself,
and does not believe that "any one
can eat knowledge out of or with a
spoon.'
The Saxon has no veneration for
the past; the present and the future
only are for him. He deprives him
self of the comforts and luxuries of
life, and tolls more necessarily than
the galley slave, in order that he, or
his family, may, in the future, enjoy
the property accumulated by him.
There is, on his part, no complaining
or whining because the Saxons, as q
race, were driven out of their long
cherished home of Saxony by the
ISclavonians and the Sarmatians.-
There has been no threatened insur-
rection or Fenian movement on the
part of the Saxon Germans, because
the Saxon race in Europe are ab-
sorbed by, and under the rule of,the
lSclavonians. There is no lament