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ADDRESS.

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

     One of the first maxims taught me by my honored father, was, "obey orders, if it breaks owners." Another of the maxims taught me, was "no man is fit to command, until he has first learned to obey." It is in obedience to these early teachings, and the command, of the President of this Society, that I now stand before this intelligent audience, to speak upon the time honored subject of agriculture.

     Why this duty was assigned to so humble and unlearned an individual, has been, and still is, a marvel. I am no "Omar, the Prudent," who, having studied the laws of the Empire, has been found able to speak upon doubtful questions; but a plain, blunt farmer, whose only merit, (if he has any.) lies in the fact of having spent half a century in agricultural pursuits. Therefore, should I fail to interest your minds, that failure should be attributed to the weakness of the agent employed, and not to any unworthiness of, or lack of merit in, the great art of arts-- agriculture.

     The early history of agriculture is veiled in obscurity. It reaches back, far back of the historical era--beyond the legends of tradition, even to that period, when man began to emerge from the savage state. As he arose above the condition of a hunter, he must, of necessity, have resorted to flocks and herds, and to the tillage of the soil for a subsistence. According to our Biblical account of the "Creation," the second man on the earth became a "tiller or the soil,'' and the third man a "keeper of sheep." Thus from the earliest tines, and the smallest beginnings, has agriculture kept pace with the increase of population and the spread of knowledge.

     More than four thousand years ago, when Thebes was in its glory; when Mennon's statue awoke the morning with its paeans, agriculture had attained to a high position in Egypt; her Nile valley was cultivated with the care of a modern garden, from the immensity of whose products, vast swarms of people were fed, clothed, and enabled to conch the throne, and rear those stupenduous (sic) works of art, which have endured in such perfection, unto our own day.

     While Tyre and Sidou were flourishing upon the profits of commerce, Hindostan, China and Japan, were supporting the densest populations upon the products of agriculture. Before the 'Augustan Age," the high state of her agriculture had made the little island of Sicily famous, as the "Granary of Italy." Her exports of corn were the wonder of the world.

     The intelligence, skill and industry, of the Midianites, Moabites and Ammonites, of Palestine, had so enriched and beautified the country, as to extort from their Hebrew foes, the graphic expression, "a land flowing with milk and honey."

     The excellent agriculture of Assyria made Nineveh great, and Babylon greater. When the ambition of their kings for foreign conquests withdrew the rural population from the fields to the army, the decline of their agriculture commenced, and the downfall of two powerful empires followed.

     A similar fate befel (sic) Persia. The wars of Cyrus drew the rural population from the fields, her agriculture declined, and the madness of his successors, for power and conquest, prepared the way for the "He-Goat" of Macedon, to stamp the empire to pieces.

     Greece-" The land of Greece, where burning Sapho loved and sung "--where Jupiter held his court on Ida's top--where art made Phidias immortal; and eloquence placed Demosthenes upon the pinnacle of fame-where union was strength, and where agriculture and commerce brought wealth, art, refinement, and power and fame, which she held until jealousies and internicine wars destroyed the fair fabric, by destroying her commerce and sapping her agriculture.

     Rome followed in the foot-steps of Greece. When Cincinatus plowed, Rome was great. When Ceaser wared, Rome bled, and her agriculture declined. Soon the seven-hilled-city fell a prey to the northern barbarians, and her rich campagna became converted into a malarious swamp.

     What has made, and what now sustains the power of Britain? A power upon which the "sun never sets." The answer is short., clear and explicit--comprised in three words--her superb agriculture, her extensive manufactures, and her overshadowing commerce. Upon the durability of these three pillars of the state, rests the perpetuity of her glories. If she neglects to burnish these by wise and. constant use, they will crumble into decay, and carry her glories with them.

     Taught us by this cursory review of the past, are:

     First. That it is our bounden duty, (if we desire to continue prosperous,) to foster and protect agriculture--the source of all wealth, the base of all power, the

very corner-stone of national prosperity, the feeder of manufactories and the soul, the blood, the life of commerce.

     Secondly. That it is our duty and sound financial policy, to establish and foster manufactures, the younger sister of agriculture, whose inventive wit, and fashioning hands, are ever employed in improving and enhancing the value of all agricultural products.

     And Thirdly. That it is sound policy and likewise our duty, to establish and foster commerce, the Ajax of exchange, the hearer of parcels and burdens for all peoples, the common carrier of nations.

     As the beginnings of agriculture were small, so also were the tools in use, rude and uncouth--mere sticks, sharpened and hardened in the fire.

     Of the quality and forms of the implements in use among the early African and and (sic) Asiatic nations, we shall, perhaps, never be informed.

     We read that when the Lord called Gideon, he was found in the field, plowing with twelve yoke of oxen. Imagine for one moment, the characteristics of that plow. The plow of the early Romans consisted of a crooked stick, sharpened at one end and shod with iron, a beam, but no handles.

     But to come down to more modern times. Well does the speaker remember the outlines of the Bull-plow of our fathers--the plow with a wooden mould-hoard--he has held them--plowed with them. Well does he remember the first cast-iron plows in use, and how quickly they drove the wooden mould-board from the field. Men then thought that perfection in plows was attained. But the steel-plow of today, as far excels Jethro Woods' cast-iron plow, as that excelled the wooden board of our fathers.

     And we have not yet attained to perfection in plows. Further improvements will yet be made, both in the forth of the plow, and in the material used in its construction. The process of hardening cast-iron upon a chill, has been recently, by another discovery, turned to account in the manufacture of plows. The new discovery consists in covering, at the proper time, the hot iron in the mould, with pulverized charcoal.

     By this process, all warping of the iron, as it cools, is prevented, and a plow made, which nothing softer than diamond will scratch. Durability and cheapness are here combined.

     Not only in plows, but in all other agricultural implements, have great improvements been made, either in their form, strength, lightness, speed and case in working, or in the quality of the material used in their construction.

     The clumsy triangular harrow, with nine, eleven, or thirteen enormous teeth useful in its day among the stumps and roots of a deforested field, has forever yielded its place in that same field, and upon all these beautiful prairies as well, to

the lighter and speedier working, jointed and rhombic termed scotch harrow, with its thirty-six or more of teeth.

     The sickle has long since yielded to the sweeping cradle; and that in turn given place to the horse-power reaper, which in its turn is destined to yield the palm to the speedier arid cheaper header.

     The Hoe.--Who that has seen, will ever forget the iron hoe of yore? That heavy, clumsy, rough and always rusty tool to winch the soil adhered with a tenacity exceeding the love of woman. That hoe which has taken the elasticity out of, and put the, aches into so many boys' backs. Thank heaven, it has gone also--gone, and none so poor as to do it reverence.

     In the meadow, the crooked, slow-moving scythe, which brought so many aches to the farmers' backs, has surrendered to the rapid strokes of the horse-power mower, with its many flashing blades.

     Hay is now loaded from the winrow (sic) directly upon the wagon by all apparatus attached to the seat, and by the use id the horse-fork again removed to the mow; thus in a measure dispensing with the historical pitch-fork.

     Wheat is now cut and successfully hound by the same machine, as it has been and may be successfully cut and threshed by another.

     But I will not weary your patience with a farther enumeration of the many changes and improvements which a century has wrought in agricultural implements, suffice it to say, that the farmer of to-day, with his many light-running and speedy working implements, can cultivate and care for the crops of two acres as easily as his ancestor, using the old, clumsy tools could of one. And as "time is money," this increase of ability is equivalent to a doubling of the capital invested; or to the saving of one-half of the farmer's time. Therefore, if "of him to whom much is given, much will be required," it behooves us as farmers, its good citizens, owing a duty to the state and to posterity, to see that our farms do not deteriorate, that our stock does not retrograde, that our buildings do not decay, and above all, that our children are not reared in vice and ignorance.

     Is of the most healthful and invigorating character. According to the tables by A. L. Child, N. D., of Cass county, the mean temperature from 1866 to 1873--eight years, was 47^o 14. That the rain-fall and melted snow gave a mean of 36.40 inches of water, for the benefit, of the farmer's crops.

     And we know from long observation, and much practical experience that the bulk of this liberal water supply falls during the crop months--from April to August, that during the whole period from '54, to '75 inclusive, on grounds properly fitted and cultivated, crops have not suffered through a lack of moisture in the soil, except in the season of '74, and even then not seriously, although for a period of eleven months the rainfall was exceedingly limited. It is true, however, that upon lands recently broken and foil of fibrous matter, also upon grounds of longer culture, but where the plowing has been shallow, or the after cultivation neglected weeds have absorbed the moisture which should have gone to the crop, thereby stunting the growth and reducing the yield. But. this is a fault of the farmer, not of the soil, nor of the climate. And I assert here to-day without fear of successful contradiction, that in this wet season of '75, the crops of my own county have suffered more through a lack of proper cultivation of the fields, than from the grasshopper visitation.

     When late in May of 1853, I first. crossed the Missouri river, and set foot upon Nebraska soil, where the town of Plattsmouth now stands, this whole country was in the possession of the red man his precarious possessory title was not extinguished until near the close of the following year. On passing through the timber which skirted the river and emerging upon the prairie, what a lovely scene was presented to the eye. Far as vision could reach was spread out a sea of green --a billowy ocean of grass; flecked and variagated (sic) with myriads of most beautiful flowers. Here and there in the distance a copse of trees relieved the eye, sunshine and cloud shadows chased each other in rapid succession over the most beautiful landscape which my eye had ever beheld. I was charmed--delighted. With the ardor of it first discoverer, I exclaimed "Is this the great American Desert--the waste of sand, where only tribes of wild Indians can dwell, and bands of buffalo and wild horses roam."

     The Otoes had then planted their patches of corn and beans. I examined the soil, deep, dark, rich beyond compare.

     Pursuing the journey westward beyond the confines of the present state, I found everywhere an ocean of herbage--a limitless sea of grass--grass before us--grass behind us--grass on the right--grass on the left, apparently the herds of the world might have found grazing room and food in abundance. Right here allow me to relate air incident to illustrate how the same thing may strike different minds. At the head of Oak Creek, in what is now Butler county, we met a party of Missouri emigrants--nine wagons returning, we risked them where they were going? Back to Missouri, was the answer. What place did you start for? Oregon. Hew far did you get. on your journey? Oh two days travel beyond Fort Kearny. Why did you turn back after getting so far on? Oh the scarcity of grass, we tell you stranger, you can never get through for want of grass. There is not half enough to subsist the stock which is ahead of you. We have thought best to give up the trip for this year, and turn home while our animals have strength to draw our wagons.

     Most encouraging information to novices on the plains, was it not?

     But having learned from our experience in the forests of New York and Michigan that men sometimes slip from home without their mothers knowing that they were out, we advised those emigrants to go right home, while we pursued our journey hopefully, and found the grass as already described.

     And now, whenever we hear an immigrant complaining of our noble young state, that he cannot make a living here--that the climate is harsh, or that the soil is poor, it at once becomes pretty safe to conclude that there is something rotten

in Denmark--that another chicken has strayed from the parent nest, and whose mother should at once be advised of his whereabouts. Nebraska has no use for such weak-kneed, faint-hearted growlers. She wants men! men of nerve and iron will, men of indomitable energy and perseverance, in whose vocabulary there is no such word as fail. She wants men stalwart as her noble prairies, vigorous as her climate is bracing with minds as strong as her water courses, and whose lives are beautiful as her flowers. She wants such men to embrace her blooming daughters, and rear human flowers for the occupancy of her beautiful prairies in time, and Heaven for eternity.

     We have seen that at the close of 1854 Nebraska was, as it were, a blank, a broad expanse of country without a people without scarce a mark to indicate such a thing as civilization--further it had a bad reputation abroad--that of a cold climate and a barren soil. The pro-slavery war of Missouri and Kansas attracted the attention of the nation. All eyes and all minds were directed to Kansas and her struggle for freedom. Nebraska was almost wholly over-looked for years. The discovery of gold in Colorado first caused her to he noticed as possessing the best road to those mines. The travelers upon this road were gradually forced to acknowledge time fertility of her soil, the richness of her grasses and the beauty of her climate. But it was not until the inauguration of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1863, that she began to attract general attention. The completion of that road brought her prominently before the country as possessing the commercial highway of the world. Since that day her onward progress has been steady and rapid.

     Of Nebraska in 1860, according to the census tables was 28,696. In 1870 the numbers had swelled to 122,117, and according to the state census of the present year, the numbers last April were 246,280. To-day the numbers must exceed 250,000 souls.

     The state now has over 1,100 miles of completed railway, assessed at $11,183,449.

     According to the state auditor's report, the state had in 1874, 863.18 miles of telegraph lines, valued at $61,555.00. According to the same report, the total assessed valuation of the state in 1867, was $20,069, 222. In 1868, the valuation was $32,632,550. In 1869, the valuation had increased to $42,125,595.36. In 1870 the valuation was $53,709,828.82. In 1871 the valuation reached $55,513,658. In 1872 it ran up to $67,873,818.68. In 1873, $78,239,692.53 was the valuation. In 1874 the valuation was $80,754,044, to this aggregate should be added $692,546.47 for tree deductions, making $81,451,590.64 as time total valuation for the year

This $692,546, partially indicates the extent of tree-planting since the passage of time exemption law--a law destined to add millions to the value of Nebraska farms, comfort to the farmer and his family, and to his stock as well.

     In 1874 the number of horses in the state, as returned by the several county clerks, was 87,449, valued at $3,906,778. Of mules, the number was 7,615, valued at $417,911. The number of neat cattle returned was 229,469, valued at $2,973,221.00. The number of sheep returned reached the paltry amount of 80,329, valued at $42,556.90. What a commentary are these figures upon our intelligence, or upon our enterprise? A community of 250,000 souls and only 30,000 sheep--a state whose boundaries include 76,000 square miles of the finest lands the sun ever shone upon-lands everywhere covered with the richest of grasses; with water in abundance, and a climate so healthful that sheep will herd in flocks of thousands and keep free from disease--a region where wool can he grown at a cost of six to ten cents a pound and, only 30,000 sheep, and that too, at a time when there is a dearth of wool production throughout the world--when manufacturers resort to cotton fibre and cow's hair to clothe the people.

     Fellow citizens of Nebraska: I appeal to your good sense, to your intelligence, to your patriotism, I appeal to you as capitalists, as farmers, as stock-raisers, to wipe this stain from the escutcheon of our fair young state.

     While we had but 30,329 sheep, we had 233,652 swine, valued at $367,576.55, being a grand total of 588,514 domestic animals, or two and one-third for each inhabitant of the state.

     This proportion is too low, we should keep a much larger number of domestic animals.

     Although the soil of our state is admirably adapted to grain growing, and although grain can be produced at small expense, yet owing to our location in the centre of the continent, and time great cost of transportation to tide water, the markets leave little or no margin of profit to the producer.

     What then? Shall we cease growing grain? By no means. But we should cease growing it to export in the berry. All surplus wheat should be ground at home, and only the flour shipped--the offal fed to stock on the farm, as all other grains, roots and hay should be.

     We should farm less ground, and farm it better than heretofore--plow deeper, harrow more, plant early, cultivate thoroughly, so as to produce more to the acre,, and then take care of it when produced. We should cease buying machinery at an advance of 200 per cent, upon the cost of manufacturing, pay for and house all we do buy.

     Keep stock. Keep all the farm can support, but keep well whatever you d@ keep--starve nothing. Raise horses, mules, cattle, sheep and swine. They will pay much better than wheat when sold on the market.

     Coarse grains, roots, hay, &c., when changed into horses and mules, travel readily to market at little cost, converted into beet', butter, cheese, mutton, wool' and pork, are shipped at little expense, sell readily for cash, and are always in demand.

     If any think there is danger of the stock business being overdone, I would refer them to the census tables. In 1800 the value of the slaughtered animals was $200,000,000, and in 1870, 400,000,000. The city of New York alone consumes annually, 450,000 head of beef cattle: Philadelphia, 300,000; Boston, 120,000; Brookly, 100,000: Baltimore, 150,000; Pittsburgh, 90,000; Cincinnati, 110,000; St. Louis, 170,000; Chicago, 150,000: other towns. 400,000; making a total of 2,040,000--to say nothing of the consumption by small villages and the farmers' families.

     Of mutton, we never produce enough to supply the demand, or for health. Of wool, the United States does not produce enough to clothe our own people, by about 100,000,000 pounds per annum, and this deficit, we are compelled to import annually, in order to keep clothed. At fifty cents a pound, this is $50,000,000 on the wrong side of our annual balance sheet. What a drain upon the produce of our mines; and a useles (sic) drain, too: for we might not only supply our own wants, but grow and export, many times the quantity. West of our great river, the whole country is. adapted to wool-growing.

     Closely allied to stock raising is the question of

     Without which no soil can long endure the drain of constant cropping. It is time the foolish not ion that soils are naturally too rich to hear manures was exploded. A given soil may contain too large a proportion of vegetable matter, to furnish the proper stamina, or hardness to plants; it may he deficient in clay, sand. or lime, for necessary consistency and strength of stem; but it is never too rich, A judicious dressing of manure always benefits a soil, improves it in some particular, rendering it more productive. The great fertility of the Nile valley is mainly due to the annual overflow of that great river. The Looes of the Rhine, is another example of river fertility, and Professor Owen says that no other soils of the world, so closely resemble the " Lacustrine" deposits of our own Nebraska. That nowhere else, as here, are found deposits of such vast extent, so homogeneous in character, and containing so variedly, and so largely, the elements of fertility. Anti yet, even this virgin soil responds most readily to manures. Few soils can equal it in this respect, or continue to yield evidence of its good effects throughout a longer period of time. In two instances, in Saunders county, we have, by a moderate top-dressing in the fall, doubled the quantity of prairie grass the following year. Last fall, Charles L. Stocking treated about one acre of our common blue-stem meadow with manure--the crop of grass was cut in June last, and so thick was it, as to be cut with difficulty.

     On a high rounded knob of the Platte river bluff; in Cass county, and on which little vegetation grew, except dwarf milk-weed, previous to being broken in 1858, and which received a moderate dressing of manure some six or seven years since --in 1873, the field, some fifty-five acres, was in corn, and on the knob mentioned

Mr. Jacob Horn, who planted and harvested the crop, informed me, was found the largest ears, and the largest yield per acre, of any portion of the field: some of which was comparatively low ground and receiving the wash from this very knob.

     The foregoing stubborn facts teach its the following lessons: First, that we must make all the manure we can; second, that we should save all that is made; and third, that we should use upon our fields all we save. Now the first lesson involves the keeping of stock. They are a sine quo non in equating the manure question, and an important factor in all computations of farm profits. They consume and thrive upon the grasses which cost its little or nothing. They consume as food, or use as bedding, all roughness of the farm. They fatten upon the coarse grains produced, which are always of low value, and expensive to market. And during all of this time, they are paying the farmer in manure made, a large per cent. on cost of keep; and when matured and ready for market, always command cash.

     A plenty of good stock, well kept, make a plenty of manure; and a plenty of manure well saved and judiciously used, make abundant crops; and abundant crops make up the farmers profits. On this corollary, hangs the law and the profits of husbandry.

     No system of husbandry can be perfect, which does not include a rotation of crops, stockkeeping and matures, among its elements. And it is time that Nebraska agriculture was being reduced to a system; that a proper course of rotation of crops was established among us; that the importance of keeping more and better stock, and in a better manner, was clearly Understood; that the necessity of making, saving and using manures, to keep tip and improve upon the virgin fertility of our soil, was fully enforced. Attention to the foregoing points, has doubled the yield of British farms during the present century, and their adoption and enforcement would be equally potent with us.

     A correct system of agriculture is a science, than which none is more intricate. If. requires brains, study, knowledge, as well as muscle, to become a first-class farmer, more so than is required for a first-class lawyer, doctor or mechanic.

     A knowledge of geology and chemistry, are indispensable to a correct understanding of soils, and the best methods of treating them, The principles of breeding and treating stock, are alone a matter for a life study.

     The proper marketing of farm products involves a knowledge of the laws of trade and of commercial relations. How to produce a particular plant, involves a knowledge of its structure, and of the elements which enter into its composition -the nature of the soil upon which it is proposed to grow it, and the climatic conditions required.

     The country has, and maintains, schools of rhetoric, classics, law, medicine, theology, &c, But few are the schools of agriculture, where our youth can obtain a knowledge of soils, and the application of manures to them; of agricultural chemistry, and its relations to the farm and its products; of the principles of breeding, rearing and feeding animals; the results from different modes of feeding, and of different strains of blood; the anatomical structure and physiological

arrangement of different animals; the structure and food of plants; their natural stations, habits and commercial value, with a thousand other things, necessary and important for the farmer to know. With few or none of the aids held out to other occupations, tied clown to farm labor, is it any wonder that the farmer of the past has been dull, or ignorant, or both; or that he has been looked upon with contempt by the weaklings--the little great men, or the great little men of the learned professions?

     May we hope that a better day is dawning for the sturdy professors of the noble art of arts--the tillers of the soil--the back-bone and muscle of all civilized countries.

     Brougham once thundered in the ears of British aristocracy, "that the schoolmaster was abroad, teaching her yeomanry their rights." So. also, is he abroad in this land, instructing all.

     If our agricultural schools are so sparse as to be comparatively valueless, yet have we an untiring, an omnipresent school-master in the newspaper--the ever-ready and valuable instructor of the world--whose thunder-tones are more terrific than Olympian Jove's, and whose sarcasm is more scathing than his fiery bolts.

     Nebraskan's! let me say to you, foster the Press--the friend of man. Touch not its liberties, for they are sacred; but curb all licentiousness, for it is dangerous, contaminating, immoral. Keep the press pure. Let its tone be elevating, its matter instructive, and no educator more useful and potent can enter our families. No family should be without a good newspaper, for it comes, the herald of a noisy world, charged with news from all nations--always fresh, instructive and useful. Time perusal of a good newspaper elicits thought, forces comparison, compels reasoning, informs the understanding, and impels the reader forward to higher aims and loftier attainments. These higher aims and loftier attainments are now within the farmer's reach. His improved implements, by reducing his labors, have doubled his time, so that he may now have leisure for mental culture and improvement.

     While the world moves, the farmer may rise; but as there is no royal road to knowledge, he must rise through his own efforts. No sluggard can surmount the temple of knowledge. But if he wills it time farmer can, while managing his farm in a skillful, tidy and profitable manner, attain through reading and reflection, to a higher degree of knowledge. Such should be his aim, such his aspirations, remembering always, that to produce the best results, the intellect, like his farm, requires careful culture.

     

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