Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1881-09-21

BERLAND CO., Pa, SEPT.
2, 1881, by W. U. HEN
Sci, OF LANCASTER,
PENNSYLVANIA
FELLOW CITIZENS: Changers, Far
merS and Editors, Ladies and Gentle
men.-lf it DO asked what place ha
the editorial profession in this celebra
tion, or what right is there for the in
trusOn of discussion Of agriculture
topics in convention of editors, let i
be answered that the function of tn,
press, in the present supremacy of III
estate, is to recognize and review ev
cry interest which concerns the gen
eral welfare, and bence especially Il
note the progress and the prospects
Of the Oldest and best continuing pur
suit OF man, that first occupation il
which he was engaged, the one by
which be chiefly subsists and in which
he realizes his greatest dignity, best
maintains his independence and mosl
fully realizes his individuality.
Nor need | say how many of the
two thousand million printed sheet.
which fall from the newspaper presses
of this country each year find lodg
ment in its agricultural communities
nor to what extent in turn the great
force of average public opinion-to
which press and politicians bowls
is moulded and toned among those
whose
Days are spent, whose minds are bent
To follow tho useful plow.
! shall not yield myself to tempta.
tion to indulge in the romance of agri.
culture. The primary occupation Of
man and the basic wealth of nations,
1t is the selfexistent pursuit of human
activity, in which there can be no dis.
astrous overproduction, into which
surplus industry can ever and again
be profitably directed, where the re.
sourses of capital and the energy of
labor can find engagement without
friction and the prosperity Of which is,
on the whole, as sure and certain as
its universality is essential to mans
moral development and material com.
tort. In every age and cline and un.
der oil conditions of the worlds life
the farmer has been the corners stone
of the social and the national struct.
ure. The statesman and moralist,
philosopher and economist have always
recognized his vital importance. The
plow is pictured on Theban palace,
Egyptian tomb Etrurian vase and
Grecian bass reheis. In Utopia, you
will remember, that farm houses were
built over the whole country and of
each family of forty score were sent
in rotation every two years from the
cities to farms, that all might acquire
some knowledge of the tillage of the
soil. Said Daniel Webster "All ma.
tional wealth depends upon an enlight.
ened agriculture"
OUR NATIONAL DOMAIN.
To us as q nation has it been left to
Illustrate this in a peculiar manner and
upon o magnitude of scale never before
dreamed Of Half of our adult popu-
lation are engaged in this pursuit, and
II per cent. Of our farms are occupied
by their owners. We have a system
of landholdings that upholds free gov
ernment and supplies healthy blood
for the body polite, a domain sufficient
to supply the whole worlds demands
for breadstufls, and so many acres
available for wheat culture that even
the present enormous yield would not
seed all the land. So wide.reaching is
that domain that the -four from the
first harvested wheat of Georgia reach
es us almost before the Spring seeding
of the Northwest has begun.
We exhibit an increase IN cereal
product of nearly one hundred per
cent in the last decade, from country
so lately with the plowshare
of war, and yet we have a home mark
ct and domestic consumption for 95
per cent. of what we raise. Swollen
as we are with pride in our mauufac.
lures, there is nearly as much capital
in our leather interests as
lumber, and the investment in flour
mills is greater than the total value OF
all our iron manufactures.
How marvellous the contrast with
our rival for the supremacy of nations,
)nce celebrated for the number of its
and propriotors, in whose united king.
lom now, with its advance of popua-
ion, the total number OF land owners
las shrunk from 10000 in 1858 and
10000 in l7s6 to 10000 in 1876,
where 523 individuals own q fifth of
III the land and not one in thirty is a
and owner, where half of Scotland is
among n dozen, and all of
Ireland scarcely knows as many own.
,rs of the soil as a single county in
oennsylvania; with Germany, whose
,easantry quit their fatherland by
hundreds of thousands for n home
lere; and with Russia plagued by the |
,roblem Of her freed serfs The very
of agriculture in which we
re rising into eminence are decaying |
n the mother country; and what with |
he rot IN sheep husbandry there, the
ecline in the proftableness Of dairy |
ng, the losses in the production of
nimal food, and the diminution Of
Tbeat culture, the prospects of new
markets for the American surplus are |
toadily enhancing.
AGRICULTURAL PROBLEMS.
Glowing as the picture is, 1t is not
D be forgotten that these boundless
osourses and this marvellous develop.
rent are not without their problems.
IS the original Divine mandate pre-
oribed that the Adamio tiller OF the
should only eat bis bread in
be sweat OF his brow and sit under
he shelter of his vine and fig tree for
le tending Of them, so the pursuit OF
gricuture has ever since been accom-
anied with tolls and boset with diff.
llties, and every step of its advance
as been crossed with new problems
'ortby Of the most intelligent invcsti.
alton. 1t is TO some of these that
'ould direct attention now, the more
specially as they concern majority
those gathered here, scarcely ven.
iring however, to moro than suggest
ION for tho application of your fuller
xperisnce to their solution.
The most casual observer Of the
riil OF population and OF agricultural
evelopment in this country has no
ced that the centre of production has
eadily moved toward the Northwest.
oven.tenths Of the entire wheat crop
grown IN Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,