Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-12-19

AS agriculture was the first employ
ment of man, SO it is and has ever been
the bed rock and ground work upon which
ali other industries rest and the source
from which mankind, in whatsoever art
or profession engaged, must draw its
Sustenance.
Though agriculture, when freed from
the tyrannical shackles that so long
fettered it, is the noblest and most indie
pendent calling on earth, yet all history
teaches that through the ages of the past
and in the countries of the old world it
was persistently denied its proper stand
ing and that the tiller of the soil, though
feeding all mankind, was ever at the
bottom of the ladder.
This was largely due, in the olden time.
to that unjust, unnatural and arbitrary
arrangement of society which made the
profession of arms the only honorable
pursuit and which gave to every man
as much as he could seize by force and
hold against the assaults of his neighbors.
Under the feudal system the tiller of the
soil was but the bondman of his lord,
subject ever to his call and obliged to
fight his battles, whether just or unjust.
As civilization advanced a gradual ad-
vancement was made in agriculture and
it is fact proven by all history that the
true measur of nations civilization is
guaged by the condition of its agricul-
tural classes
1t is also an established fact that the
strength, stability and permanence OF
ii nation rests upon the independence ol
it's agriculturists and their attachment tC
the soil they cultivate.
When Rome ''sat on her seven hills and
from her throne of beauty ruled the
world" the tiller of the soil contentedly
pursued his avocation on his own small
holding and patriotism and a love OF
country were nurtured and esteemed
But when the rapacity of the mobiles
reached out and grasped these quiet homt
farms and formed them into vast estates
to be titled by bondmen, their former
occupants flocked to the cities to bt
enervated and contaminated by property
and vice, the empire lost it's sturdy de
tenders, its power waned, 'it perishet
from the failure of the crop of mem anC
its grand civilization is now but memory
of the past
The present state of agriculture in
Maine is one of prosperity and the outlool
for the future is encouraging. Never wert
the farm homes of Maine more comfort
able or better finished and adorned; never
were their occupants better fed, or better
clothed, or surrounded with more of the
things that make life pleasant and de
sirable than at this present time. Foi
this they are largely indebted to the influ
ence and advantages of the grange.
Though we hear continually of the de
cadence of Maine agriculture and of its
present depressed condition throughout
the State, yet | am not afraid to assert
that no class of citizens is more indepen-
dent, none have felt to a less degree tht
pressure of the hard times brought about
by the recent depression in business in
dustries than the farmers of Maine.
The census of 1890 divides the $50, 35J
families in Maine into 81, 1879 families
occupying farms and IS, 233 families
occupying homes that are not on farms.
More than % per cent. of the farm fami-
lies own their homes, while less than
eight per cent. are tilling acres not their
own BY the census figures about IS
per cent of the farm owning families
own their farms free from mortgage in
cumbrance As matter of fact the per
returns were compiled from the records
in the offices of the registry of deeds and
it is well known that many paid up
mortgages have not been cancelled on the
records We may thus safely assume
that at least so per cent, OF the farm
homes of the State are free from the weight
of mortgage Indebtedness.
1t will be seen from the above figures
that more than two-fifths of the population
of Maine are engaged in agricultural
pursuits; that of this number more than
nine tenths own their homes and of these
latter at least four-fifths belong to that
most independent and most fortunate of
all classes on Gods green earth, the
undisputed and untrammelled owners of
the soil they till.
l am willing to place these figures with
out argument and without comment
against the croaking of the PEE simists and
the gr,Imblers who seek to decry Maine
agriculture.
Education.
Upon the subject of education the