Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1877-10-24
SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE CENTRAL
ILLINOIS FAIR.
BY COL. INGERSOLL.
Some Rich and Racy Rea ding Which AL
Glasses Of People Can Heartily
appreciate And Enjoy.


Glasses Of People Can Heartily
appreciate And Enjoy.
Knowing, as we do, that our readers
delight IN good things, we herewith
give them Col. Ingersoll's famous agri-
cultural speech, delivered at the Central
Illinois Fair, at Peoria, on Tuesday, the
18th instant, as we find it published in
the Peoria Saturday Eerening Call.
Hero it is:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN ~ on see
before you to-day an old and experience
ed tiller of the soil, one of the hard-han-
ded sons Of labor, one who imagines
that he knows something Of the art of
cultiyating the soil and extracting hap
piness from labor. suppose every
body understands something about farm
ing-except editors Of agricultural pa
pers ana magazines. I know enough to
know that agriculture is the basis Of all
wealth and of all prosperity, and that in
a country where the agricultural labor
is free everybody Is free and ought to be
prosperous.
FARMING IN TIRE OLDEN TINE.
1 knew that the old style Of farming
was mistake. When 1 was farmer,
in the. olden time, in Illinois, they used
to fence one hundred and sixty acres of
land with two dogs. When I was a
farmer they used to haul wheat two
hundred miles in a wagon and sell it
for thirty-fve cents bushel and bring
back about three hundred feet of lum-
Der, two punches of shingles, barrel of
salt, and a cook stove that never would
draw. When 1 was a farmer they
feasted on corn and bacon, and didn't
know very well how to cook even that.
We had poor houses and no barns. The
horses were put in straw sheds, aud long
before spring most Of the straw would
be eaten away: and it took all the oats
and all the corn we could stuff into those
horses to keep them from actual star
walton. In those days most formers
thought the best place for pig pen was
in front Of the house. and
the wood pile as general thing consis-
ted Of one log upon which an axe or two
had been worn out in the fruitless effort
to make kindling.
Everything about the farm was inf
nitely disagreeable. There was no
leisure and no comfort. 1t was all la
Dor and WEAKNESS and ''vexation Of
spirit" Every farmers boy took a
thousand oaths that he would never Gull
tivate the soil. The moment they ar
rived at the age of twenty-one they left
the farms they rushed to the towns
and cities they wanted to be bankers,
railroad men, doctors, lawyers merch-
ants, anything, to avoid the drudgery Of
sarming. Every boy acquainted with
The three r's-reading, 'rlting and 'rith-
netic-imagined he had altogether more
education than ought to be wasted in
the soil, and made haste to
20 into some other business. Those
who s.aid upon the farm envied those
who went away. When times are pros
porous, the young men leave the farm
to engage in something that promises
great and swift returns. They build
they establish banks and in
surance companies they speculate in
stocks in Wall Street, or they gamble
in grain at Chicago. They become rich /;
they live in palaces, and their brothers,
left upon the farms, are little envious.
But
TIME HAS BROUGHT ITS REVENGE.
The farmer has seen the railroad presi-
dent bankrupt and the road in the
hands of receiver. He has seen the
bank president abscond and the insur-
ance company wrecked and ruined
fraud. And to-day the only solvent
class, the only independent class, are
the tillers of the soil. The shrinkage
in property has been in the great cities.
The farm will produce as much as ev-
er.-The prosperous tines have gone,
the cities are bankrupt the country is
still filed with wealth. And ROW,
when the hard times are upon us, the
people see that after all there is more
real prosperity, more real pleasure IN
agriculture than In any other business
And the salvation Of our country to
day depends upon the tittlers of the
soil.
What we want is TO make farming
more attractive than it ever has been.
The farmers of Illinois have been waste
full. They haven't attended to their
own interests. They have been rob-
bed of their productions and 1 am go
ing to tell you TO day what [ think ought
to be done.
WHAT FARMERS CANNOT AFFORD TO
SELL.
No farmer can afford to sell his wheat
and corn and oats. He should sell
horses, not oats; sheep, cattle and pork,
not corn. He should make every profit
possible out of what he produces. So
long as you ship your corn and oats and
wheat, so long you will be poor; just so
long your farms Will be mortgaged to
the insurance companies and capitalists
Of the East just SO long all the profit
Of the industrious in this glorious State
will be given to pay the capitalists of
other States. When our farmers ship
their products in the form Of stock, then
wave ofprosperity will sweep over our