The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1877-1885, 1878-09-05
The Salient Points Of Col. POlk's
Speeches in the West.
BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.

Speeches in the West
By OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.
Your correspondent having accom-
panied Col. Polk through his entire
campaign of the West, and having
necessarily furnished your readers
with very imperfect and disconnected
sketches, given at such moments as
he was able to appropriate during his
hurried trip and constant travelling,
he deems the work and its prospective
results of such importance as to war
rant its presentation in better form. A
all the eleven points Col. p. addressed
good audiences, s,-cOmposed chiefly of
farmers, their wives and daughters
and who evinced great interest
throughout. Although the speeches
averaged over two hours in length,
his hearers never seemed to weary
but not only listened with patience
and unabated interest but seemed to
regret that they could not hear more.
At all points he sketched fully and
faithfully, the origin, the establish
ment, and the purposes of the Depart
ment of Agriculture as prescribed by
by the law: on all these features in
which the western section was es-
pecially interested, he was particular
to dwell in detail.
Inspired by the wonderful capabili-
ties which every days travel impressed
him with renewed force, he spoke en-
couragingly, and hopefully Of the re
ults to be accomplished, provided the
people would give the Department
that moral support and encourage
ment, SO essential to its efficiency
The cereals, fruits, grasses, water
powers, timbers, and mineral wealth,
of this section, would if properly util-
lied give it the strength of an empire
within itself
At one point in response to the
question from the crowd, ''what do
you think of our country" he re
sponded Il think that God in His
munificent bounty, has done all for
you that you could ask; see that you
have only to touch this genial soil for
it to respond with bountiful harvest;
you have a climate unsurpassed on
this continent. and here at an altitude
of twenty-eight hundred and fifty feet
above the sea level, | find grapes,
pears, peaches, apples and all vegeta-
bles growing in the greatest profusion
and perfection, while your hills and
mountains are covered with rich and
luxuriant grass, your soils are as fer
tile as the bottoms Of the Red river,
even to the tops of your mountains,
whose slopes, and gorges and coves,
are crown with the most valuable OF
various timbers, and in whose bosom
repose undisturbed, untold treasures
of mineral wealth; your sparkling
gushing springs supplying you with
the purest water and your crystal
rivers furnishing water power suffi-
cient to turn the combined spindles OF
the world.
Your merry songs Of peace, Ginning
in with the familiar hum of the SPIN
ming wheel and the clack of the loom,
which gives to you through the cheer
full industry of your wives and daught-
ers, the blue and brown jeans suits IN
which / see you clad. Are you not
happy, and should you not be gratitied
for such home in such country:
But if these various gifts, were it be
be utilized, and this God favored sec
ton brought up to its full develop
ment, more than one third of the year
must be devoted to work, wealth does
not consist purely of dollars and cents,
surplus crops and a ready market for
them are desirable, but your wealth
can be as surely increased and happi-
ness as truly subserved by improving
the farm, by adding to the comforts
and beauties of home.
He urged these points with great
earnestness, and admonished the peo-
pie that they should not be lulled in
to inactivity, by undue hopes of bless
ing which they had fondly pictured
would be showered upon them, by the
completion of the rail road. Rail roads
like most enterprises of magnitude,
have their inconveniences as we'll as
their advantages; one singular fact
which impressed him in all his travels