The Monitor-register. [volume] (Woodstown, Salem Co., N.J.) 1892-1972, 1896-11-20

FARMERS DISCUSSING QUESTIONS OF
AGRICULTURE-AN INTERESTING AD-
DRESS OF WELCOME BY MAYOR RICH
| NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. ON LABOR AND
CAPITAL AS TWIN NECESSITIES FOR
| SUCCESs-PAPERs ON FRUIT GROWING
| AND DISCUSSIONS ON TOMATO GROWING
AND CHICKEN RAILS OF
! THE sOIL-GOOD ROADs-DAIRY AND
| KINDRED INTERESTS.
The annual Farmers Institute of
Salem county, under the direction of the
State Board of Agriculture co operat
ing with the County Board, was held iD
the Opera House on Tuesday and
Wednesday. with large attendance of
those interested in agriculture. Franklin
i Dive. Secretary of State Board of Agri.
culture. presided, and there was gen eral
participation in the discussions. Upon
the platform were number of samples
of corn by J. Dubois, Joel Borton and
H. W. Austin; apples and celery by
Empson Atkinson; peas and oats by q
| KIRBY. with turnips and sugar beets
of larg- growth Top soil from Kansas
was shown by Dan Ware, and also
sample fro North Dakota. and variety
of chrys .nthemums by Miss Rebecca
| Austin.
Mayor Richman gave the address of
welcome at the opening of the Institute
on Wednesday morning, which ELECTED
general commendation, and it touches
questions that are worthy of considera-
tiou, so that we prescott it in full, as
follows:
Mr.. President, Members of the State Board
of Agriculture, Ladies and Gentlemen:
II affords me great pleasure, in behalf of
the citizens of Woodstown, to welcome you
to the hospitality and to extend to you the
greeting of our little borough. feel that
do not exaggerate when say we feel COM
plimented and honored by having with us
such an Intelligent body of farmers, farm
ers' wives and representative men, engaged
for the time being in the consideration, and
seek ing to promote one of the most import
ant, If not the most important interest in
relation to material wealth and individual
happiness. We are all, of whatever avoca-
ton or profession, more or less interested in
the subject that will be considered by you
| as farmers during this convention.
Society as constituted to-day has become
cosmopolitan. No man lives unto himself
| in this nineteenth century. Our business
interests are so interviewer that the success
| of each depends to large extent upon the
general pros perity of all. We cannot thrive
as in The animal and in the vegetable king
dom-by absorbing each other. What affects
you as farmers affects us as merchants. me-
| chanics and pro fessional men. We cannot
prosper by your misfortunes; neither can
you prosper by our undoing We each serve
our own interests best when we serve the
best interests of all.
The world to-day has outgrown the primi-
| tive conditions of the PatriarchaI Age. Man
| in his higher development demands more
than the qualification of appetite, he de-
| mands the qualification of the senses well.
| In order to meet the demands growing out
| of mans higher development various occu-
pations have sprung into existence that
| to-day share the thoughts and activities of
men. And yet we all recognize agriculture
| as the basis aud substratum of all material
| wealth. all advancement, all happiness
| Without agriculture all other avocations
| would languish, all advancement cease.
Society, it exists to-day. would disinte-
CRATE by the memorable law of the relation
| of things And yet we must not undervalue
the professions and the other productive
industries that tend to create material
wealth. di versify labor, and augment the
sum of human happiness. Without these
auxiliary forces society would have forever
|
legitimate avocation has its appropriate
| sphere in the activities of the world. The
trend of all is TO the diversification OF labor,
| and to the augmentation of the sum of hap
piness of the individual, and of society in
general. -44
There seems to be a growing disposition
on the part of great many farmers to-day
to discount the possibilities Of the farm, to
regard agriculture as no longer remuner-
| alive and its pursuit no longer desirable.
This believe to be mistaken conception.
| 1 believe that agriculture yet has reward for
advanced. thorough husbandry. The great
est menace to-day to our material prosperity
is the tendency to crowd our cities and to
neglect the soil. In a country like ours,
with broad areas, diversified industries, and
heterogeneous population, there can be no
permanent prosperity with a languishing
agric ulJure. Already other industries are
te cling the effect of the depressed condition
of the farming interest, and are suffering
with it. To continue to neglect the soil is to
intensity these conditions. "a
The present depressed condition of the
farming industry is attributable in part TO
conditions beyond the farmers control, and
I'M pant to the farmer himself. The opening
up of new countries. the application of i'm
|
ties of transportation by land and by water
have stimulated production and brought
the world into competition. To meet these
new conditions home protection must be
fostered by government. and the individual
farmer must adopt new methods and put
more thought into his work. The loose,
haphazard methods of business practiced
upon most farms would, If carried into the
other industries, paralyze commerce. wreck
merchandising. and bankrupt Wall street.
| In business this Is Darwinian age of the
survival of the fittest In the intense activ
tiles of to-day brains count for more than
brute force. The need to-day to insure sue
cess in any department of activity Is intelli-
gence to direct and sand to stick. The man
who lacks these req uis1tes is bound to get
lett. care not what may be his pursuit
There also seems to be {. disposition on
the part OF a great many farmers to regard
themselves as only laborers in the primary
sense of the term, and such to array
themselves against capital as beartess and
rapacious-to consider all other industries
in which are involved aggregations of capt.
tal as inimical to their prosperity. This 1
also believe to be mistaken conclusion.
| Capital employed in other avocations is as
essential to the success of agriculture as
capital. The two are so Intimately asso-
ciated in interest that one cannot p rosper
without the other. The man who strikes
down either digs the foundations from
under his own success. The memorable law
of success compels capital and labor to
adjust their relations upon an equitable
basis.
Capital and labor are the twins of the
world, born of the DEGREES OF the Almighty in
the bowers of Eden when the fiat went
forth, 'in the sweat of his face shall man eat
bread Capital and labor are the co-partners
of the world, and their business relations
are throughout the hemispheres. BY their
combined effort they have tunneled noun
tains, bridged rivers, and opened up the
trackless soitudes of the ocean as highways
of commerce. They have placed at our feet
and spread upon our tables the products OF
the tropics, and given in return the pro-
ducts of the further zones. They built the
| pyramids, the wonder of the ages, and con-
structed every harp that swept by the hand
of pity has soothed the sorrows of theworld.
Divorce them of their relationship and cap
ital is a Promethius chained to the rock,
and labor is giant shorn of its strength.
Divorce them OF their relati onship and you
arrest all progress and defeat the purposes
of God in the highest interests Of the human
family. s - ~, = s. 8
With these few thoughts,I close for fear of.
trespassing upon your time. gain we
welcome you to the hospitality ana sociality
of our borough, and hope your deliberations
while in cow ention may be both pleasant
| and prof table.
Secretary Dye responded, saying be
was pleased With the broad view taken
t~f+ - of tha far nd