Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1884 — BLAINE TO THE FARMERS. [ARTICLE]

BLAINE TO THE FARMERS.

The Plumed Knight Speaks of Husbandry and Congratulates Its Followers. [Manchester (N. H.) dispatch.: Janies G. Blaine, ex-Gov. Smythe, George B. Loring, and Mayor Portman entered the grounds of the New England Fair at noon, followed in other coaches by many, distinguished citizens? Mr. Blaine was received with cheers. When the party had been seated. President Loring introduced. Mr. Blaine, who spoke, saying: It is pleasant to find ourselves in ah assemblage where all bear the name of a higher honor than that of any partisan designation, an assemblage in which we moet on the broad plane of American citizenship and rejoice in the title, as in itself constituting a civic distinction of priceless value. The agricultural fair is the farmer's parliament. On this day and on this occasion the most independent class of citizens speaks to the world by word and bv deed for tiiat great fundamental interest on which the Republic rests for its security and its prosperity. It has become a trite saying that agriculture is the b isis of all wealth. But the full measure of the statement may be comprehended when we remember that, in this year of grace 1884, the total value of products from the farm and flock in the United States will exceed $3,0t0,5ij0,000, an amount brought fosh in a single year vastly in excess of the national debt at its highest point. We are not in the habit of considering New England as specially distinguished for agriculture, and yet the annual product from her soil is greater in value than all the gold taken from the mines of California and of Australia in the richest years of their fabulous yield. The farmer is the true and always successful miner in the extraction of money from the earth a fact most strikingly shown in the history of California, whose splendid march to wealth and power only fairly began when the energies of her people were turned to the production of bread for the world instead of gold. The prodigious consumption of 56,000,000 of people is brought strikingly before us when we realize how vast a proportion of our aggregate product is used at home, and how small a share is sent abroad. A hundred and odd millions of the New England farm product does not support her own people, and they are compelled to exchange the fruits of their mechanical industry to an enormous amount annually for the means of subsistence so lavishly outpoured from the granaries of the more fertile West; and this fact is but one of ihe many which show the independence of our people and the vast extent of our internal exchanges. This scene to-dav has an enhanced interest, when we reflect that, throughout the gorgeous autumn upon which we have just entered, will be reproduced in countless communities throughout our land, from ocean to ocean, from the northern lake to the southern gulf, a richness of harvest and the contentment and happiness of the people will be shown on fields as fair, by displays as brilliant, as those which now delight our eyes and gladden our’-hearts. Nor will this autumn exhaust the inspiring scenes. When the chill of winter on the northern border of the union shall make the southern sun seem genial and welcome, our brethren of tne cotton region will cootinue the wondrous story. They invite us to witness the commercial emporium of the South, the great triumph of southern agriculture in the production ot that single plant which has revolutionized manufactures. They have the finest of the world of that which has enriched the United States beyond the reach of imagination, and has added incalculably to the comfort, health, and luxury of the human race. Standing as I do in a fair New England State, it is an agreeable duty to extrude ngratulations to the New England farmers on the results of this year’s labor and on the general and more important fact that at no period in the history of New England husbandry has intelligent labor been blessed with more profitable results than during thetprea nt generation. If there be anyone that doubts this, I wish he were here to-day and could hear what I havp heard and see what I have seen. I heartily congratulate the NewEngland Society on the brilliant success of this exhibition, and I beg. to return my sincere thanks to all for the personal kindness and cordiality with which" I have been honored.