of misfortune there will be many of abundance and prosperity. The providence of God may send you sometimes temporary disaster, but you can hardly be utterly ruined, as the merchant can, by the folly or the treachery of man. Envy not the smartly-dressed clerk, nor even his rich employer, surrounded by the splendors of city life; the brightness of the outside wrappings is not always a guaranty that there are cheerfulness and peace of mind within. Many of these men may more justly envy you your sound sleep, of which their over-anxious and over-wrought brains so frequently defraud them.

The life and condition of the farmer are not what they were a century ago.

Everything has tended to lighten his burdens and to add to his comfort, his independence and his power. While he has been plowing and reaping, the inventive genius of man has been at work to lighten the labor of his hands. To recount the inventions of the last twenty-five years, would be to tell the story of amazing progress. But I shall not undertake the task to-day Time forbids.

Within the past year alone, more than 2,000 applications for new patents have been filed in the department at Washington, and more than 1,500 patents have been issued for new agricultural implements, or for valuable improvements upon old ones. The false idea that labor-saving machines were the manufactured enemies of the laboring men of a country, has been exploded. All the inventions of the age in which we live have not diminished the demand for farm laborers in America. The cry is still for more, and from the lands across the sea hardy men are coming to supply the demand and to meet the want. Mind and muscle thus work together to develop our vast extent of territory, and to make us the greatest producing country of the world.

Home and foreign markets are of easy access. At home, the great lines of railroad and water communication give to the most distant sections advantages, which, a few years ago, were hardly dreamed of. Upon lakes and canals the rich and abundant harvests are borne on to the great central markets, and competing railways, with reduced charges for freights, bring to the same markets their great loads of the produce of the far west.

Almost before the din and bustle of the late civil conflict were over, the Pacific and Atlantic oceans were linked together by the Pacific railway, pushed forward to completion, as it was, by an energy almost unparalleled, and passengers and freight are now hurried across the continent in less time than was required some years ago to trans

port men (some of whom are now living) from Albany to New York.

The nations of Europe also offer to us their markets. The sailing vessels upon the ocean, struggling against adverse winds, have, to a great extent, given place to the advancing power of steam, and cargoes of wheat and other grain rapidly find their way across the seas. As the great emigration of Europe diminishes her productive powers, and increases ours, so also it increases and will increase her demands for what we produce. The southern people, of whom it was said before the war, that they knew not economy, and were more extravagant than the north, have, in their adversity, learned frugality, and are applying themselves with new energy to the work of repairing damages and of getting rich. A crop of cotton for the present year, which will yield almost $300,000,000 in gold, tells us what they can do there, before the smoke of battle has fairly cleared away. Just as soon as they are re-established, as they ought to be, in the great family of States; just as soon as the jealousy and strife of section shall pass away; just as soon as the proper relations between capital and labor shall be perfectly adjusted, the southern States will rise to a condition of prosperity, such as they have never known before, and will stand side by side with the most favored of their northern sisters.

Our country, notwithstanding the great debt which rests upon it, cannot fail to grow rich and prosperous, if our people will be economical.

The extravagance of the age in which we live, however, must be checked, or, with the corruption and demoralization which attend it, will come disaster and distress. There is no estate so large that a spendthrift cannot exhaust it. There is no people so powerful that extravagance and corruption cannot destroy them.

Our exports of the great staples, will bring neither national nor individual wealth, if they go only to pay for luxuries which enervate and corrupt.

Far be it from me, to deny to any man or woman, the enjoyment of anything which will contribute to his or her peace and happiness. But the nation is in debt $2,500,000,000, more than $1,000,000,000 of which is held by the people of other lands. What the nation owes, the people owe, and what the people owe, each individual owes, for we are sureties and bondsmen for our country and for each other. Bondsmen, indeed! and who is so much a bondsman as the debtor? There is no way to get out of debt but one, either for nations or for individuals. A man cannot pay his debts by giving his note, nor,

can any government pay its obligations by the issue of irredeemable paper. There is but one standard of value, and that has been fixed by the common consent of the world; and by that standard must all debtors ultimately be judged. As no quack remedies can remove deep-seated diseases, so no ingeniously devised financial schemes, can point out any but the one way to pay a nation's debts.

When a man has violated the laws of health, and finds his system broken, and his physical powers weakened, there is no medical specific which can save him. He must cease the practice of dissipation and folly. He must nurse his exhausted energies. He must economize his wasted strength. He must develop, as best he can, his physical powers. So it is with our country, which has been called upon for profuse expenditures. It has within it elements of strength and the means to meet all its obligations, fully and fairly, if it will; but it must diminish its expenses, as well as increase its revenues. It must stop waste, and develop all its resources. It must labor in earnest, and economize in earnest. If a farmer owes $1,000, the payment of which is secured by a mortgage, he can pay it if he will, by his labor and out of his land. If he neglects his farm; if he and his sons and daughters are extravagant and wasteful; if family discord destroy the peace of his home; if a reckless dissipation characterizes his life, he will add to his obligations, and will not pay his debt. So with the nation. The labor of the country, and the great area of its territory, upon which the whole national indebteness is a lien, can sustain the credit of the government and pay its obligations. But, if the people, who are the laborers, are extravagant and idle; if strife, discord and contention shall prevail among them; if passion and folly, instead of judgment and good sense, shall control them; if hatred, rather than love of one another and of their common country shall move them, then the national honor will be imperiled. I have read many learned essays on the question of "How to pay the national Debt." When men ask me what financial theory I have, I answer "Only one; and it is this: A union of people and of States; a hearty joining together of all sections in the common work of re-establishment and restoration; industry, prudence, retrenchment, and economy. Increase your earnings; diminish your expenditures. Save when you can and spend only when you must, and let the whole world see that you mean to pay your debts."

If the people are extravagant, the government will be. The stream cannot rise higher than its source. The representative will not be

better than those he represents. Other peoples have sunk under the crushing weight of individual and general extravagance and folly. Let us take warning by their examples, and in doing so avoid their fate.

And now, my friends, a parting word. You have a noble occupation and great duties and responsibilities. You ought to strive to model your lives after the highest human standard. Shall I describe to you the model American farmer? The practical man will say the sketch is a fancy one; well enough in books and pictures, but too poetical and fine drawn for the corn field and the meadow. Yet in every picture however highly colored, we may find some true features worthy of being copied and preserved. The model American farmer loves his calling and appreciates the good and beautiful things by which he is surrounded. The snow-clad fields of winter, the soft verdure of spring, the ripe wealth of summer and the glory of the autumn, are as dear to him as they are familiar. The noise of running brooks and the dripping of the fertilizing rain are music to his ears; the whisperings of the great trees of the forest are sweet to him; his eye is trained to note the changeful phases of the sky, and his mind quick to interpret them. The hum of busy trade does not bewilder him; nor the glare of the distant city dazzle him; his heart is full of a comprehensive love of nature, and he is content to work on with her in her own calm and deliberate method of working.

He is honest, patient, industrious, thrifty. Nature does not cheat him of just reward, nor does he shirk his share of duty in the universe. Every day imposes on him its daily labor; but he knows that every season will vary his work, and so refresh and relieve him. The gifts which he receives from nature's hand he is ready to mete out again with no niggard hand. He is cheerful, hospitable, kind-hearted. Friendly intercourse with his neighbors lightens his toil, takes from the sharpness of temporary adversity and adds to the pleasures of his prosperity. He has entire respect for his calling and for himself, and feels that he has full play in his occupation for brain and muscle, and need overwork neither, although the mouths to be fed are too many, and the processes of nature too slow to admit of indolence or waste. The buildings which shelter his family and those which protect the cattle who contribute to his support are in good repair and cleanly, without regard to ostentation. He is kind in his treatment of the dumb beasts who are his submissive servants, nor does he grudge a little fruit or grain to the birds of the air who help him in his warfare with insects, and many of whom cheer his life with their songs.

He opens his eyes to the sunny side of life and seeks not out its dark spots as an incentive to grumbling. If sickness or other misfortune befall a neighbor, he is ready with sympathy, with active aid to the extent of his ability; and in turn he counts on his neighbors' help should he need it.

He is patriotic; a firm friend of liberty, of order, of law. He glories in the grandeur and honor of his country, and is content to contribute, in his quiet life, to the general good by making himself, and of those about him, good, honest, faithful men and women.

He is religious. Living always in sight of the Creator's beautiful works, his heart expands daily in thankfulness for the many pleasures which God has given to him, free of cost, and he shows his gratitude in his daily life.

Contented, yet desirous of improving his condition; too proud of his independent lot to envy others who may be clothed in gaudier trappings, yet kindly to every man and submissive before God; saving, from a sense of duty and not from avarice; faithful and loving to his family; honest and frank in all his dealings; thankful that so few temptations surround him, yet watchful against evil; truckling to no man, yet scorning none; not given to grumbling at the weather, but greeting cheerfully alike the sunshine and the rain; earnest in his political duties, a lover of nature, a lover of mankind, and a lover of God. There, my friends, you have my model of an American farmer.

WARREN.

The annual meeting of the society was held at French Mountain January 5, 1869.

The treasurer presented his report for the previous year in detail, with vouchers. The same was referred to a committee of three, who examined it and pronounced it correct.

The following officers were then chosen for the ensuing year: President, Henry Griffing; Treasurer, Charles W. Osborn; Recording Secretary, A. Newton Locke; Corresponding Secretary, W. H. St. John.

The exhibition took place Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, September 21st, 22d, 23d and 24th, being protracted one day longer than customary in consequence of the unfavorable weather of the first two days.