The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-10-25
A SPEECH TO THE FARMERS.


A SPEECH TO THE FARMERS.
WE take the following extract from
the address delivered by Col. II. &.
1n~cr>oll. of Peoria. H.. to the farm
cr> assembled at the opening of the re-
cent Central Illinois Fair:
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: You see
before YOU to-day an old and eNperi-
cnccd tiller of the soil. one of the hard
handed sons of labor. one who imagines
no knows something of the art of cult
waiting the soil and extracting happi-
hess from labor. | suppose everybody
understands something about farming
except editors of agricultural papers
and magazines. l know enough to
know that agriculture is the base of all
wealth and all prosperity, and that in Il
country where the agricultural labor
is free. everybody is free and ought to
be prosperous.
l know that the old style of farming
was mistake. When | was farmer,
in the olden time, in Illinois, they used
To fence 100 acres of land with two
dogs. When was farmer they used
to haul wheat 200 miles in wagon
and sell it for 50 cents Il bushel and
bring back about 800 feet of lumber.
lunches of shingles. barrel of salt
and Il cook stove that never would
draw. When l was a farmer they feast
ed 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 i'll straw sheds, and
1,n hnfn e
woslu be eaten away: and it took all
the oats and all the corn we could stuff
into those horses to keep them from
actual starvation. In those days most
farmers thought the best place for a
pig pen was Immediately in front of
the house. and the wood-pile, as gen.
cral thing. consisted Of one log upon
which an ax or two had'b worn out
in the fruitless effort to make kindling.
Everything about the farm was infin-
i,ely di>agrccablc There was no leis-
urc and no comfort. 1t was all labor
and WEAKNESS and "veXation Of
spirit" Ever farmers boy took a
thousand oathS that he would never
cultivate 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, rail-
road men, doctors, lawyers, merchants,
anything to avoid the drudgery of farm
ing. Every boy acquainted with the
three 's-reading. 'riting and 'rith-
metic-imagined he had altogether
more education than ought to be wasted
in cultivating the soil. and made haste
to 90 into some other business. Those
who staid 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 quick returns. They build
railroads; they establish banks and
insurance companies; they speculate
in stocks in Wall street, or they gamble
in grain in Chicago. They become
rich; they live in palaces, and their
brothers. left upon the farms, are Il lit
tie cnvious. But time has brought its
revenge.
President a bankrupt and the road in
the hands of a receiver. He has seen
the bank President abscond and the in
surancc company u 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 ever. The prosperous times
have gone; the cities are bankrupt; the
country is still filed with wealth. And
now, when the hard times are upon us,
the people see that after all there is
more real prosperity, more real pleas
IRE in agriculture than in any other
business. And the salvation of our
country to-day depends upon the tillcrs
of the soil.
What we want is to make farming
more attractive than it ever has been.
The farmers of Illinois have been
wasteful. They haven't attended to
their own interests: They have been
robbed of their productions: and + am
going to tell you to-day what ought to
be done. = ~ ~
No farmer can afford to sell his wheat
and corn and oats. He should sell
horses, not oats; sheep, cettleand pork.
not corn. He should make evefy profit
possible out of what he produces. 81
long as YOU ship your corn and oats and
wheat, 80 long yOl: win be poor; just sc
long your farms win be mortgaged t
the insurance companies and capital
lists Of the East; just 90 long all tn,
profit of the industrious in this glOri
Gus State will be giyen TO pay the CAPT
talists Of other St6tes when our farm
ers ship their PRODUCES III thu form d
stock, then q wave Of 'proSterity vii
sweep over our Std&e md Inlaois MI
hot.Orno tho unoek 49,. =