Litchfield enquirer., 1873-09-25

lng for its parent the same cause. others; the absence of anything worthy of exhi. bltion. far more. Looking at these grounds to-day one might think that New
 England ia fnll of progressive agricultur-
 ists, and her acres but so many gardens; but if you will look over the heads of this audience and beyond these grounds. where
 the mass of the people actually live. you
 Will see that ignorance and poverty and
 lack of ambition are embodied on all sides. In houses unpainted and gardens grown to weeds; in fences neglected and
 orchards unrenewed; in stunted stock and impoverished acres; in unditched mead
 ows and ungathered harvest; in all these signs you will behold proof that the
 knowledge of New England agriculture is
 but superficial, which prompts me to say
 that the average farmer has been, and is
 to-day stupidly slow to act in those direc-
 tlons in which action means success.
 For one, then. I do not blame the
 young men of New England because they
 have left the farms They deserted
 agriculture only because agriculture could
 furnish them with no worthy object of
 ambition or effort. In the place of a req
 sonable amount of wealth as reward of
 application, it could hold forth only a
 bare livelihood, and as to honor or culture 1t promised nothing at all. Such being
 the condition of things the young men
 had right to leave the farms They had
 no right to remain on them, even as one
 has no right to remain ignorant when he can become learned, or poor if by honest
 effort he can become rich
 E The true way to prevent this desertion
 of so essential and noble pursuit on the
 part of our young mon is not found in ex-
 horting them to beware of cities and
 wealth, but by providing some way by
 which wealth and culture shall come to
 them while engaged in agricultural pur-
 suits. When our young men shall see
 that in arboriculture, horticulture, horti-
 culture, stock raising and other refined
 and educative branches of husbandry,
 they can earn ole, two, three, five and
 ten thousand dollars per year, who SUD-
 poses the cry will longer be heard in the
 land that "Our young men are deserting agriculture. In a materialistic age like this you must put materialistic influence
 upon men and hold materialistic rewards
 before them in order to keep the just equilibrium between the several indue- tries, and the only way to make our young men choose farming as their profession is to make farming pay.
 But allow me at this point, lest some misappfehend me. to declare to these young men near my own age, and indeed before you all, that am not believer in the maxim that ''money gauges a mans success in life', Riches as mean of he, nefcence to ones self and others are to be desired, but as the object of life to be despised. Riches may come, but they do not express the object of individual or governmental existence. Our fathers did not fight that we, their children, might be rich. but that we might be free. If the Republic stands for anything it stands for laws wisely framed and impartially ad- ministered; for economy in administering the Government and honesty in collecting the taxes; for virtue protected and intel ligence spread abroad amid the people i; and in the personal rectitude of those who are elected to honor. No one so lilly rep resents the Republican idea as the man who gains and uses wealth only for selfish ends; who, having been elected by the people to frame laws for their protection, filches money from their pockets with one hand and votes to iegalize the villainous transaction by holding mp the other.
 No, never let it be said that the worth and dignity of any pursuit are measured by the money standard. There Is that in every honorable calling which makes it dearer to it's followers than the coin it brings them. And agriculture is full of what might be called these connpeQsatjons. In bodily health and meAtal peace; in the absence of temptations and tumult; in the domestic joys and home privileges that 1t allows and insures; in the frank, honest companionships it encourages; and in the knowledge and love of Him who presides benignly over hill and plain, house and fold, in these the agrculturist finds a wealth which rust cannot corrupt nor thieves break through and steal.
 The wealth for which I plead, which every faithfully and intelligently followed industry should yield, is that amount able to satisfy just and reasonable minds. To put the agriculture of the country east and west on such Q basis that it shall yield this should be the earnest effort. as it must be the desire, of every patriotic citizen.
 There are in our midst class of men. composed of representatives of almost every prominent pursuit and profession. who are directly engaged in this endeav- or, having been fortunate ill acquiring large means, being intelligent and filled with true love of country life, they have devoted large sums of money and not little thought to the improvement of New agriculture To the ignorant and such as guage the value of effort by the financial returns alone, their enter prise seems foolish, and an epithet has been put upon them which served, indeed, only to describe the ignorance of those who used it-I refer to the phrase 'fancv farmers. am glad of this opportunity to publicly express the sense of my in- debtedness, as a farmer and farmers son, and the indebtedness of the country at large, to those men who have spent their money so freely in behalf of the pub lie interest. Especially in the introduc- ton of improved breeds of cattle and. sheep, swine and horses, and in the popu- larizing of practical chemistry do I, and every agriculturist, stand indebted to them. Their blunders, which some seem to regard as matter to point their satire, appear to me to be only the inevitable ac- cidents attending all new enterprises and untested methods, while their successes have resulted in the benefit of all The briefest examination of the fruits and flowers, the cattle and sheep pens on these grounds, and especially an inspec- ton of the magnificent horse stock here exhibited, will reveal to any thoughtful visitor at this fair how much we all owe to these men by whose public spiritedness such magnificent display has alone been made possible. The fact is, there is not a herd of cattle, or an improved breed of sheep, or a crate of elegant fowls, or 8 family of noted horses here today which does not owe it's introduction and exist ence to the enterprise of these men. If the beautiful customs of the Greeks pre- vailed among us and at every gathering of the people those who had benefited the State most were to have wreaths of honor distributed to them, surely these men could not go hence unknown and unre- warded. Nor will they go unrewarded. Not in wreaths or tablets, or monuments bestowed at death. gentlemen, but in the evidences of prosperity brought to all in the enlargement and ennobling of needed industries; in the multiplication of un- selfishness born of your examples in the banishment of poverty from barn and sta ble and in the universal betterment of the