Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1875 — Wanted, an Agricultural Society. [ARTICLE]

Wanted, an Agricultural Society.

Honest nxpn arc rejoicing because President Grant has accepted the resiguation of Mr. Attorney General Williams; and vet many bate their breath through fear that Mr. Benjamin F. Boiler may succeed to the vacancy in the Cabinet. From the vigorous manner that country newspapers are entering into the municipal campaign of Indianapolis this season it would appear that their patronage was largely depending on its Result. The tone of the Republican papers of that city indicates liar of a Democratic triumph, and that the Republicans are colonizing voters there in order to prevent an expression of the bona fide citizens. A post-office organ at Winamac, called the Republican, is engaged in the harmless recreation of criticising the political record of one of the proprietors of this devoted paper. The only remarkable peculiarities we have been able to discover in these criticisms are wonderful fertility of the critic's imagination, and his surprising hostility to veracity. Each of these endowments are sufficiently fervid to distinguish the home of genius.

It is reported that the Secretary of War, acting under instructions from Congress, will order a corps of government engineers to make the survey, during the approaching summer, a route-for a ship canal from Lake Michigan to the Wabash river at or near Lafayette, and report upon of each a work, together with an estimate of its probable cost. If the scheme should prove to be practicable there is no estimating the commercial advantages which might follow this uniting of the Gulf of Mexico with the Great Lakes by an intercontinental water passage protected from ocean storms. Should the shortest rpute between Lake Michigan and Lafayette be chosen by the engineers, Rensselaer will not be far from the line. All the railroad news we have to publish this week is, that people who earnestly desire the prosperity of Rensselaer are fully alive to the importance of the Chicago & South Atlantic project, and manifest a .spirit of liberality and enterprise in connection with their work to establish and put the scheme oiv its feet for which they have long been famous. We believe it is now safe to say that the full amount of subscriptions required of the people to bring the road to Rensselaer can and will be raise, and in season for the company to go on with its work through the county without interruption after it has been commenced. Every dollar of the $60,000 now pledged on subscription is sure to be paid when the conditions are complied with. Every note is good. There is not a “straw” among them. .The people who give these j notes aie iti earnest, and acting in good faith. Whenever the company is ready, now, she can proceed with work; and if a train of cars shall run over her road from Chicago, Illinois, iuto a depot within onehalf a mile of the court house in Rensselaer on or before the first day of January, 1876, she may send her agent along to get that $75,000 as soon thereafter she pleases, and it will be paid over promptly and cheerfully. No less than four times, before this within twenty years have the people here raised subsidies for railroad projects and been disappointed. If many were not discouraged by these repeated failures it would indeed be a remarkable incident, especially so when they have spent money, time and labor on the projects, all to their own loss; but we hope, yes almost to actual belief, that this campaign is the one that will bring us all out of the wilderness, and set this beautiful and naturally favored cofihty of ours on thfe broad highway of prosperity. Then let every man and woman do each what they can to hasteu the enterprise forward, and remember thaj by the exercise of energy, an indoni ini table will* and unfaltering perseverence ail obstacles that, are met In life?‘may be overcome, and

these together with some money will bjjukl this railroad, and make a good market town of pool but pretty back-woods Rensselaer.

A good many people think we have one in every state ami in almost every county. Possibly we have in name, but that is all. We have associations for building annual fairs, but that is the beginning, the middle and the end of them. The members hold no meetings for any other purpose than to arrange for holding fairs, and to adjust matters when the fairs over. There are no addresses, essays, or discussions. No one would ever know by the talk of the members when together that they were engaged in agriculture. Their talk is that of showmen getting ready to hold an exhibition, and not of farmers engaged in the pursuit of agriculture and stock-raising. Those societies do no real work as other societies do where/members are engaged in occu pat Sonsy other Than fanning. They performs no experiments with a view of ascertaining results that would he of advantage in conducting operations. They publish no transactions, for they do not transact anything. The members at meetings do not even talk business in relation to the marketing of stock and produce, and buying supplies and farming utensils. They have no social meetings for the purpose of forming a better acquaintance. They simply meet from time to time to arrange lor holding fail's, and then meet to wind up the accounts of the shows.

As jo the fairs themselves they seem to be ordinarily managed with a view of seeing how much money can he obtained at the gate. To do this there most be something to draw a crowd. Sometimes this something is a balloon ascefision, a gymnastic performance, an exhibition of a stump orator wtio makes a speech to get votes at the next election; or it may be a combination of all of them. Generally, however, the attraction of the occasion is a horse rate, or a series of horse races. To sum up the matter, the object of the agricultural society is to hold a fair, the object of the fair is to raise money. The way to raise money is to have what good Artemas Ward called *'a purely agricultural boss trot.” Of course there is something of the fair besides an exhibition on the race track. Ordinarily there are two or three herds of short-horn cattle, owned by breeders at a distance, and taken about, the country on exhibition tours for the purpose of taking premiums anil .advertising the herds. Of course this stock and other stocks of the same kind is of advantage to the fair aside from helping to draw people. It gives farmers opportunity of seeing improved animals, and in many cases causes them to be introduced. They are, however, so much superior to the animals owned in the vicinity, that the owners of them do not wish to bring them to the exhibition. Of late years almost everyone Ims noticed that there has been a falling oft’ in the number and quality of farm products on exhibition. The fairs have become essentially 1 stock fairs. There are ordinarily a large number of implements exhibited bv the manufacturers for the purpose of advertising them. On the whole the larger number of exhibitors bring their articles for the purpose of procuring sales directfy or indirectly. There is out little rivalry for obtaining premiums on the products of the lield, the orchard, or dairy. There is not a good exhibition of the things produced in tiie vicinity. what'we want is an agricultural society which shall do something to develop and improve agriculture, which shall render it attractive and exert an influence to cause men of wealth and education to at least take an interest in farming, orcharding, and stock raising. To do this, something else is wanted exceptan annual fair. To do this it is necessary to make experiments in the production of crops now growing in the vicinity, and to record them ; to test the value of fertilizers of every description, and the various ways of applying them to produce the most good ; and to examine in a scientific and practical manner the capacity of every soil. But more than these things need to be done. We want to introduce new ' crops that are grown in other countries iof about the same latitude, and to ! acclimate others that grow in countries warmer or colder than our own. We want to learn more about the construction of drains, the storage and distribution of water, the preservation of meats, fruits atiu vegetables, the economy of feeding animals for i the production of beef and milk, and i the relative value of the different i breeds of animals, To accomplish all ! these things requires the united efforts ■ of men of ability and means—requires ! the formation of a society of men working for a purpose. The Royal Agricultural society of Great Britain employs a chemist with i a number of assistants, maintains a botanical department where the acclimatation of vegetables is carried on aud the diseases of domestic plants are examined; publishes reports on the progress of agriculture in Great Britain and other parts of the world, aud conducts' experiments in everything that promises to reward the labor of investigation. It does hot neglect the matter of holding fairs, but it does not make them the leading object of the organization.