The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-09-05

cannot fail to afford pleasure and profit to the
people who will throng to the attractive display
Won have prepared for them.
The chief object you have in view-the en-
couragement and improvement of agriculture
in New England, is one of the first importance,
and SO affects all interests as to make it the
duty OF every man to further it with whatever
assistance 1t may be in his power to render IL
is the prevailing belief that strong and great as
New England is, with her commerce ana trace
and employments in nearly every branch OF
human industry, her progress ana wealtn,pIo-
duction is not such as her endowments ana al
vantages entitle her to expect. Ore OF the
principal reasons for this disappointment is not
far to seek: it is obvious to 1.-THE most casual
reflection. 1t lies in the fact that her agricul-
ture does not receive the attention it deserves
that due proportion of her people do not
devote themselves to the pursuits of
the soil. Vast sums are expended for meats
and breadstuffs, the production of other soils,
which our own farms that have been aban-
capable of supplying. The young men who
are needed upon them are competing In the
cities and towns for employments that are
insufficient for all, and unremuneratlve when
obtained. In the country t hs are idie farms,
"a divorce of capital and labor that must
stand in the way of prosperity.
To remedy this state of things, by reiIforc-
the NUMBER Oh tuOSe tuRdStu III agrlCul-
tural occupations until a just balance is
secured, is a contamination worthy to be
sought by all who have the public welfare at
heart The presentation of the examples
afforded by our intelligent and successful
farmers is the most effectual means to that
end. by giving proof that farming can be made
profitable and that intelligence and energy
avail as much in that vocation as in any other.
This exhibition, presenting as it does on
noble scale the best results in agriculture,
dc f1n%x oil
success attend it.
DR.. Loring, the President of the New Eug-
land Agricultural Society, in assuming the
control of the exhibition, spoke as follows:
DIR. LoRNG's OPENING ADDRESS.
Gentlemen We have returned after the
lapse of many years, TO hold our annual New
England Exhibition, in connection with the
leading Agricultural Society of one of the best
farming States in the Union. Maine is attrac-
tive to every student and observer of American
agricultur. Her broad territory dis diversified
with all the variety which mountain, and val
ley, and forest, field and picturesque sea-
coast can create. Soil admirably adapted to
all the northern crops can be found within
her limits, and cooled by the lfe-giying breezes
which blow from arctic bays and gulfs,it springs
into new and sudden life from the steady re-
pose of winter, as the breath of summer warns
its slopes and wales into rare fruitful
ness and beauty A State OF great re-
she possesses rare opportunities for future growth
and advancement. Situated in the latitude
best adapted TO human exertion, her forests
and streams, her land grazing and arabic, her
harbors and geographical location hold out
large and abundant promise to all who would
practically apply their energy and skill. Not
vet developed by intense activity and the heat
of overweight business into height of
form and reasonable prosperity, amidst the
fluctuations which elevate and depress the
more uneasy and less fortunate. And in her
organization as State she presents an enviable
picture of widespread comfort, of general pop
ular intelligence steadiness of purpose, firm
ness of conviction, and moral determination
worthy to be admired and cherished every
where. Maine is great agricultural State;
and while we have gathered here to contem-
plate this striking illustration of her agricul-
tural wealth and development, and to learn
by conference the best laws which govern our
calling as farmers, it is our most gratifying
duty to remember what that community is
winch draws its life from this great occupation,
We shall be allowed, l doubt not, to pause a
moment in the beginning, and, without incur
ring the dspleasure of the modern critic, who
will complain because in:every age of the world
the relations of agriculture to State and society
opportunity for the development OF strength
and virtue and the attainment of rational and
healthy happiness, to repeat the pleasing
thought once more. We shall be tolerated, L
culture still holds that place assigned it by the
wise and strong men in every age of the world,
and denied it by those only who see in all the
industry of life nothing more than the material
results of toll and effort.
We can indeed rejoice in the evidence lying
all around us, of its success in the community
which we represent. Aud without discussing
the methods by which these attachments have
been reached, without entering into the lnvesti-
cation of cultivation, and crops, and animals
for yuh halnnUq n
sions like this, we can with propriety remind
ourselves that we are gathered in the empor
UNI of a great agricultural Commonwealth,
whose intellectual and moral development
comes of that system of life which the fathers
planted in the rural districts of New England.
1t is great thing to be able to say that the
farms of this State into (which these hills and
valleys are divided, are occupied by contented,
intelligent, and happy people; and to the
tboughtful observer it should be matter of in
terest and qualification that theirs is a commu-
nifty mindful of its honest obligations, true to
the best principles of free civil organization,
faithful to the demands of religion and educa-
ton, economical in public and private AFFAIRS
. community comprehending the value and
meaning of self-goyernment, and of the indi-
vidual self-reliance and independence on which
it rests.
1t is with unusual satisfaction that contem-
plate these characteristics of rural communi-
ty like this, occupying somewhat sparsely set
tied territory, and representing the general
condition of the agricultural people OF our land.
The serious and painful anticipations OF a re-
turn Of our farms to their original wildness,
and of our farmers to primitive barbarism,
have attracted the attention not only of the
student of agriculture, but of the student of
mans social and civil condition We know
that in times past, the isolated farm houses of
our country have sent into every walk in life
a powerful and intelligent body of men, who
have established our nationality, developed our
industry, guided our councils. We have been
~ l. aa1 wSI,sl ACn f0al no
hAve;come from other lands to investigate the in
stitutions of our own that the vital force of our
republic springs from the occupancy and own
ership of the soil, in such a way as to mark the
independence of the owner, and to impress him
with o sense of his civil duties and opportuni'
ties. Time was when the relations existing be-
tween the rural homes of America, scattered,
isolated, lonely as they were, and all the intel
lectual activity of the country, were so intimate
that almost every river OF knowledge flowing
across the land, seemed to find its four tain
head in one of these homely abodes. Their re-
spouse to every great expression, their aid to
every great popular endeavor, were prompt and
powerful From the scattered homesteads
along the seaboard to the last dwelling on the
frontier between whose heartbstone and the
pole the smoke of no white mans cottage
curled, might be found the solitary homes of
those great men who preserved and transmitted
the characteristics, which lie at the founaa!lon
of our national strength and greatness. And
these homes were part of that social organiza-
ton which was strengthened by Its rural
repose and its daily toll and trials,
and which has become as much moro
than all others the type of American civ
llization, as the country is broader than the
town, and as the rural population outnumbers
the masses in the streets of OUT large cities. AS
it was in the beginning, so it is now. The
country still feeds the town and will continue
to supply its life-giving food SO long as it pre-
serves its sturdy ways of individual indepen-
denee, and refuses to abandon its calm and un-
disturbed modes of life and thought for more
active scenes and influences. A New England
farm is a good home still, farm standing apart
in all the Gig nifty of its independent organiza-
tion-a home founded upon kindly recogni-
ton of mutual obligations, and pressing and
Inevitable sense of duty devolving upon each
member OF so narrow a community-a home
ready to receive the influences of the library
and the church. the schoolhouse and the lecture
room, and capable of carrying all these infu-
ences into its own retreat to perfect AID enjoy
them there.
have called your attention to these charac-
teristics of New England rural life, and this
condition of the isolated homes which have
always abounded here, because their defects
and trials have been from time to time earn
estly set FORTH and because considerable intel