The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-05-11
evening State sournal.
THURSDAY EVENING, MAY II. 1871.
Influence OF Agricultural Societies.

Yorker, at Washington county, Virginia,
asks us to furnish him with facts and
Statistics" likely to sustain the argument
that agricultural societies are conducive to
the agricultural development Of the coun-
try. 1t is not easy to separate and define
the influence these societies have had dis
tinctively and directly upon agriculture in
the Northern States For immigration
and internal mprovements-su as the
building of railways, canals, etc.-have
been stimulants to production. On the
other hand, the increased production re-
sulting from competitive rivalry at fairs
and the mingling of farmers with each
other and their interchange Of experience,
has attracted immigration and stimulated
internal Improvements. So, as we have
said, it is not an easy matter to give facts
and figures that can be regarded as illus
trative, exclusively, of the influence of
agricultural societies upon agricultural pro-
duction and the progress and prosperity of
agriculturists.
But no Northern man, familiar with
Northern agriculture since, say, 1910, as
we have been, can place low estimate
upon such influence az affecting the agri-
ricultural interests. Vivid are the remem-
brances of the impressions made upon our
neighbors and ourself by the first fair held
10 our country; also by the first New
York State fair we ever attended. 1t was
new revelation of the dignity and worth
mess of our vocation about which we had
repeatedly listened from the mouths OF
pleading partisans and palavering politi-
clans. 1t was lifting us out of the ruts
OF common drudgery to the seventh
heaven of ambitious desire to beat some
body We saw new types of horses,
cattle, sheep and swine; we found
the gardens of our neighbors yielding
larger and better vegetables than ours
we had it demonstrated to us that there
were better kinds of corn grown, brighter
and purer samples of wheat, heavier and
meatier oats, larger and more marketable
potatoes, whittier and handsomer onious.
larger and sweeter squashes, longer and
larger carrots, better butter and cheese,
whittier and lighter bread, more delicate and
attractive cake, haudsomer and more elab-
crate quilts, better knit stockings, better
colored domestic cloths, and that there
were tools manufactured to aid the farmer
in the cultivation of his farm better adapt
ed to his wants than we had seen at the
country corners whereat we bought our
cast pillow points for an old.fashioned cast
iron pillow with which we did all our pl )v.
iug-old land and green swaziland cult
waiting.
Facts! Why 60 in any direction you
choose, in any one of the Northern States.
and look at the herds of to day and COM
pare them with those of 1910; look at the
Devons and Short Horns. Ayrshires and
Herefords, Attorneys and Holsteins The
difference between then and now is almost
entirely due to the inhuence of agricul-
tural societies. For the man who had
good animal or herd of any of these breeds
named, had only to show it at one of these
fairs in order to sell at extra prices all the
progeny he could produce. And his sue
cess and prosperity stimulated others to
import, improve and compete with him.
And the livelier and closer such COMPETE
ton, the greater the demand from those
cognizant Of it and the greater these mems
prosperity.
So of American sheep. The present
high standard of American fine woods, the
high position of American Merinos, the
high prices which have been and are to-day
with the present depression of the wool
business) paid for these animals, are due
almost entirely to the influence of compe-
tition at fairs. Edwin Hammond sue
ceeded because he led at these exhibitions,
and because his focks were directly or To-
directly represented at every important
exhibition in the country. So of other
shepherds who have succeeded. Fairs
have been both advertising agencies for
whatever man had to sell that was ex-
cellent, and demand creating agencies; for
when men see that some one else has
something better than theirs, a desire to
have it is created.
We need hardly go outside of the mar
ket improvement of the stock of the coun-
try to show how much influence these So
cieties have exerted to render Northern
agriculturists more prosperous and pro-
gressive for with improved stock came
improved culture. To keep good stock
one must cultivate we'll and the increased
number Of herds added to the ability to
improve lands.
We know that dwellings, barns, out
buildings, door-yards. gardens, fences,
tools, carriages. household implements and
+ conveuiences, dairy utensils indeed every
thing relating to the economy of Northern
farm life to-day owe, largely. their present
improved condition as compared with that
Of thirty years ago. to the influence of ag-
ricultural fairs.
And in localities where none have been
held and where every man is willing and
anxious to compete with his neighbor, no
more potent agency can be used to devel-
op the spirit of progress. To the North,
the magnitude OF special branches of has
bandry, the outgrowth of fairs in great
measure, has compelled the re-organiza-
ton OF those engaged in these respective
specialties-such as Dairy Husbandmen,
Sheep Breeders, Fruit Growers, Bee Keep
ers, Poultry Fanciers, etc.-into distinct
associations. This is natural and neces-
sary result of growth; it simply indicates
growth-is a subdivision of the same Or
CARNATIONS, because of the unwieldiness OF