Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-02-02
FARMERS OF THE FUTURE.
The Duty Agriculturalists Owe to
Coming Generations
>. G.. O>borne's Paper Before the
Recent Meeting OF the county
Institute at Port Byron.

lish in full. The subject is The Duty
We as Agriculturilsts owe to the Future
Generations"
The subject assigned US is larger ard
more important than at first thought it
appears. We shall see that it concerns
not only the progress of farming as a
business and as a science. and the devel-
opment of our moral communities in the
coming years; but it also touches the
vital centers of our nation s life. is
not toe much to say, in the light of his
tory, that the condition of the rural popu>
lslions, socially, morally, in Cellectual and
financial will determine the character of
the nations civilization, aud thus deci de
the nations destiny. We speak of the
fathers Of the republic; and say that
those who preceded US laid the founda-
tions, and we have entered into their
labors. But it is true, and in far
broader sense, that we are laying founda-
tions also. We are pioneers. A part of
our work is to remove Instructions, to
open highways, to institute organizations
we cannot speak of perfecting them
so as to give scope, direction and the
best possible opportunities of achievement
to the intense activities of the years that
are to come.
The debt we owe posterity is infinite in
its vsstness. A chain of causes once set
in motion will continue. each result be-
coming in its turn a cause. This is as
true in society as it is 10 nature. So long
as the sun shall rise and Sc, and the sea-
sons revolves in their orbits, and the hu>
man family exist, so long will our work
and our lives bear fruit in the life work
of those that shall come after us. As
agriculturalists we occupy position of
peculiar responsibility. and this fact mod
lies without diminishing our obligations
10 the future. II we will only think of it
we will see that the farmer is the wealth
producer of the world, except the metals
dug from the mines. the timber cut in the
forest, the fish captured in the ocean, all
forms of new wealth grow out of the
soil. Industry fashions these into new
shapes whereby they acquire new uses
and new values; commerce transports
them to places where they are wanted,
thus increasing the demane and the value;
but the cost of all these processes and all
these incr6ments of value must be paid
for, TO the penny, out of the products of
the soil. Hence we affirm that more than
30 per cent of the worlds wealth, today,
is the product of the farmers labor.
Again, the farmers though not perhaps
majority of the people, are by far the
most numerous class. Hence thew exert
immense social and political il fiuence.
They can make and unn axe presidents,
parties and policies. They sre the au-
thors of constitutions, the founders of
empires.
Among the duties we as sgriculturalsts
owe 10 the coming generation we men,
ton first OF all: To place the business of
farming upon solid, financial basis
We put this first for the obvious reason
that without financial pros perity progress
in what we call the higher departments
intellectual and morals well nigh i'm
possible. We mean that the BUSH
ness of farming should be so or
gsnized and made to sustain such
relations to other enterprises that the
farmers shall be reasonably sure of his
reward. He who makes two blades of
grass to grow where only one grew be
fore has an inalienable estate in that
blade of grass, and he must be gusrsn-
teed pesceable possession of that estate
ANY other system has in itself the ele-
ments of dIscord, and the germs Of dis
solution. Capital, skill and industry en-
ployed in agriculture should receive
equal rewards with these elsewhere en-
gsged. Who will say II at such is now
the case? Our duty. not alone to our
selves but much more to our successors,
is to equslize this inequality.
In attempting this We must cultivate
self reliance. 1.-THE gods help those
whom their own valor hel ps." said an an
cient philosopher We need expect little
from legislation or from politicians. We
must put our own shoulders to the wheel
if we would lift our cart out of the rut.
But Rome was not built in day. We
shall not win this fight. But posterity,
profiting by our failures, and avoiding
our mistakes, may accomplish what we
cannot.
Our duty to the next generation, there
fore, includes reducing the business of
farming to h science; the elimination Of
unwise and unprofftable methods; the
discovery of principles on which new and
successful methods may De formulated; q
systematic regulation of the production
and distribution Of our staIle', so as to
ADJUST the supply TO the demand. and
thus secure unifermslly paying returns
for our labor; the cultivation of more in
innate. social and busine IS relations with
each other; an application in our bust
ness of those practical principles that are
found successful elsewhere.
These are among the leading objects of
the model farmers Organizations; and
we owe it to the farmers of the Goth GEN.
tn inn I'D u
izstions.
Again, it is our duty to provide thor
ough system of agricultural education.
Much has been done. but very much re-
mains to be done. The progress of sgri
cultural education, its quality and its
usefulness depends very much upon our
selves. 1t will never be more than what
we demand of it. The important thing
is that it shall educate farmers-working
farmers-those that can wear hickory
shirts and leans pants and handle the