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Those who have articles on exhibition will wish to see others similar to their own and will instinctively compare notes. If some other one has excelled them they think they could do better next time, and will be anxious to decide upon plans of action for the next year. Right here it seems to us great care should be exercised in the selection of committees, that those only be chosen who understand the particular class of articles or animals which they are to judge, or der to decide fairly and honestly that not one of these little ones be led

ray.

If the children could be thus entertained and instructed, how many years, think you, would it be before Cardiffgiants, auctioneers, horse-racing, and the like would receive no patronage at the annual fair? But, instead, it would be attended by a more enterprising and useful people, fulfilling better their mission in life.

HON. R. E. TROWBRIDGE'S ADDRESS AT THE TWENTIETH ANNUAL FAIR OF THE INGHAM COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

MR. PRESIDENT AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :-It affords me sincere pleasure to accept the kind invitation of your board of directors to deliver the address before this annual gathering of your society, and thus contribute my mite to the pleasure and profitableness of this happy occasion. I accept it the more readily because it is in the line of my own lifetime business, and while I hope to say some things which shall interest and perhaps benefit some of you in the prosecution of your business, I equally expect to see and hear many things in my intercourse with you which shall enable me the more successfully to manage my own farm and increase its productiveness.

I believe in agricultural fairs. They are occasions of both pleasure and profit. We are apt to not sufficiently appreciate the advantages of holidays. Man needs to be occasionally relieved from the humdrum of every-day life, and to go out from home to see what his neighbors are doing in the world, and how they do it. And I shall not regard him as possessing the usual sharpness of the universal Yankee nation who does not come back with such new ideas and increased alacrity in the prosecution of his business as will far more than compensate him for all the time he may occasionally thus spend.

And if this may be said of men whose life is so diversified by the ever changing character of their various pursuits, how much more true is it of the women of our country, whose arduous duties and labor confine them so much more closely to their own domiciles, and so shut them in upon the tread-mill round of every-day life, that an occasional respite is absolutely necessary to let them know and feel that they are living in an age of vast improvement and of progress unequaled in the history of the world.

I think I can appeal to the experience of every man and woman who hears me to bear me out in the assertion that you can accomplish more and render your homes more cheerful by occasionally going out and mingling for a time with the improvements and progress, and the disappointments and trials which

are the experience of the world around us, than you can by staying constantly at home and plodding along in the unvaried track which our own experience soon makes for us. These agricultural gatherings furnish the best opportunity for thus commingling together, and if we have our eyes and ears open, we shall see more and hear more that will be of advantage to us in our business than we could, in any other way, in ten times the amount of time which we annually spend here.

Every man comes up here with his year's experience of success or failure, ready to impart it to his neighbors upon the simple condition that they shall do the same in return, so that when you go away from here you carry with you, according as you have been attentive to what was going on around you, more or less of the experience of this vast multitude to guide you in your future operations.

What would we not give on some occasions when about to commence a piece of work, if some one should come along and kindly tell us the best way to do that work in order to secure the very best results. But that is exactly what you should learn here. Here you have the best products of your county, and you should find out the very process by which they were obtained. And I have no doubt that you who shall to-day receive first premiums might still receive from others, who have not been on the whole so successful as you, such valuable hints in regard to some parts of your labor as will enable you to make still further improvements.

Agricultural fairs, then, have a two-fold character. First, a sort of holiday, -a harvest home. When, after the severe and arduous labor and confinement of a long season of cultivating, seeding, and harvesting, the fruits of the season having been mostly secured, and the necessity for close labor and attention somewhat relaxed, we come together, men, women, and children, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends, to greet each other and extend congratulations over the prosperity and success of the season which is closing; or, if perchance the occasion calls for it, to sympathize with those who have not been fortunate, and whisper in their ears the word of consolation, of hope, and encouragement which may possibly send them home with new thoughts, new aspirations, and new courage for the future.

But while we thus mingle in holiday festivities, in the true spirit of our people, which always endeavors to turn everything to some practical good, we have brought up from all the various fields of our operations some of the best specimens of our products, stock, grain, and handiwork, in order that by accurate and careful comparison, each with the other, we may learn the best and cheapest method of producing everything.

When we recollect that the very existence of the entire human race depends upon the products of the soil; that either immediately or remotely the soil produces every particle of the nutriment with which we are fed and every fiber of the clothing with which we are all covered and warmed, we shall at once see what intimate relationship this question of cheapest and best production has, not only to that large and honorable class known as cultivators of the soil, but to the entire human race. It has been well said that the man who should discover how two blades of grass may be made to grow where before was but one would be justly regarded as one of the greatest benefactors of his race.

I shall, therefore, in the few moments during which I shall ask your attention, simply endeavor, without attempting to explore the fields of science and philosophy, to throw out such practical hints as will tend to enable the great mass of farmers to increase the actual products of the season's labor.

I presume no one will dispute me when I say that the best production has not by any means been reached in the agriculture of this country. Even the best and most successful of our cultivators are constantly discovering that the earth has capacities of which even they never before dreamed, and they are sadly conscious that they are but on the threshold of that knowledge of the true laws of nature, upon the correct application of which depends the success of all cultivation. If this must be said of the most successful of our farmers, it is plain to see that the great mass of them need much enlightenment to enable them to secure the proper rewards of their hard labor.

I know a farmer whose annual average production of wheat for a series of years has not been less than twenty-five bushels to the acre, while it has frequently reached forty, yet he lives in a neighborhood where the average production on adjoining farms has scarcely reached twenty-five bushels to the acre in any year, while it has fallen so low as ten and sometimes less. What is the secret on account of which this man receives so much more bountiful returns from the same mother earth than do his neighbors ? He claims it as the result of his thorough tillage. I cannot tell you the cause, but I have announced to you the fact, and now ask of you, each and every one, to join me in trying to find out the cause. I propose to try to equal his product. I propose to try lime on some, plaster on some, ashes on some, and salt on some. I ask all you wheat-growers to join me in experimenting, and when we have found out anything valuable on the subject, let us publish it for each other's benefit.

Again, I know farmers who are in the constant habit of selling two and three years old horses and cattle for more money than their neighbors obtain for the same kind of animals at four, five, and even six years old. Here must be a great saving, viz.: of two or three or even four years' keeping of the animals, besides the more speedy returns for the first expenditure, thus enabling the farmer to re-invest it in some way, and perhaps get a second return from it before his more tardy neighbor gets his first.

How does this happen? What is the reason that one man may thus obtain in two or three years what requires at the hands of his neighbor four or five? I trust you will pardon me for relating an incident which occurred in my neighborhood some years ago, and which may illustrate and answer these questions. That neighborhood was principally filled by men who, though living in one of the most beautiful and naturally richest towns of Oakland county, had been singularly backward in adopting the improvements which had been made in the system of cultivation and stock-breeding. When I purchased my farm in that neighborhood I, of course, needed stock to consume the surplus feed, and I saw one day, feeding in the road in front of my house, a pair of cattle which I supposed to be three years old. I thought they were about what I wanted, and inquiring out their owner, I went to see if I could purchase them. I asked him how old those cattle were. He said "he did not know exactly. One of the boys (alluding to two grown-up sons) says they are five and the other says they are six years old." Of course, dwarfed like that, I did not want them, and never let him know my object in inquiring. I supplied myself elsewhere. But that summer I raised a pair of calves. About a year and a half afterwards my neighbor sold his cattle in the fall to a butcher, and soon after, in conversation with him, he said to me he believed it was good policy for farmers to raise stock. Said he: "The money I got for those steers seems to be a perfect God-send. They never seemed to cost me anything. They run at the straw stack winters, and in the road in the summer, and now the money seems

just like coming for nothing." "How much did you get for your steers?" I inquired. "Why, just by throwing in a two-year-old heifer that didn't amount to anything at all, I got thirty-five dollars!" Six months afterwards, or the next spring, I sold my calves, which had now become two years old, for seventy-five dollars. Here, then, I had obtained for two years' keeping of a pair of cattle more than twice as much as he had for six or seven years' keeping, according as the one or the other of the boys was correct as to the age of a pair of cattle, with a two-year-old heifer thrown in.

This occurred, yes, my friends, it actually occurred, and I could give you the name and actual locality if I thought best,—but it occurred when cattle were cheaper than they are now. I have since seen such cattle sold, and I have myself sold such cattle for much higher prices than I got for those steers; but I doubt whether anything has ever occurred in that neighborhood which has had so marked an effect upon the system of farming and the general tone of thinking as this little incident. Of course, as all such things do in a country neighborhood, the facts became known, and men asked themselves what is the cause of so great a difference, amounting to five or six hundred per cent on the capital invested.

Let me for one moment repeat and answer this question. What is the reason of this great difference? In the first place my cattle were high grades ; that is, they possessed a large share of what we call improved blood, while the others were natives. In the next place I had fed liberally at all seasons of the year so as to keep my cattle always growing, while my neighbor has, by his system of feeding, stopped the growth when they went to the yard in the fall, and his cattle became so impoverished, hide-bound, and generally out of sorts, that it took two or three months of the next summer's feed to put them in the condition they were in the fall before; so that in reality they only had two or three months of the entire year in which to grow.

These two facts, I think, fully account for the real actual difference in the cattle. Then there was the incidental fact that the condition in which I kept my cattle enabled me to take advantage of the market and sell when I saw the best market, while my neighbor was obliged to sell at the only season of the year when his cattle got fit to be sold, at which time all cattle were fit to butcher, and so the price was low.

From the foregoing facts, I think we may safely derive two valuable deductions.

First, always secure the best stock of all kinds you can find for raising,— even if it does cost you a little more in the beginning,-the best horses, the best cattle, the best sheep, and the best swine. It seems to me that we should always have clearly defined ideas as to what we are raising the animal for,-if it is a horse, whether it is for the general farm work, for heavy draft, for the road, for the carriage, the saddle, or for the fancy. These and perhaps other legitimate uses to which the horse may be put require very different characteristics in the animal, and we ought to understand what we desire to raise in a particular instance and select accordingly. And here I trust you will pardon me for putting in a word of caution in connection with the rearing and exhibition of horses.

I fear we are turning our attention too much to the raising of what are called fast horses, and giving too much place and importance to their exhibition at our fairs. No man more passionately admires a good horse than I do. But the horse is not the only animal or product of the farm which is entitled to

our admiration and careful cultivation. And I very much question whether the breeding of fast horses is, on the whole, the most profitable branch of breeding horses. Of all the men who use and desire to possess horses, I apprehend not more than one in fifty, and I think I might say not more than one in a hundred cares whether his horse can go a mile in two-forty or in eight minutes.

Why then should we all go to raising horses for this fiftieth or one-hundredth man? And why give up so large a portion of the time of our fairs to the exhibition of trials of speed between horses. I know it is said these trials of speed bring a large attendance to your exhibitions, and hence money into the coffers of your society. But that is the very thing I would remedy, by pointing out to the people and elevating them to the appreciation of other more important though less alluring and exciting portions of your exhibitions.

But would you discard the raising of trotting horses and their exhibition? Not all. But let those who have the skill and the aptitude to train and perfect the trotting horse, and the means withal to wait for a market for him, attend to raising him. But let the great mass of farmers who desire to raise horses turn their attention to raising good, substantial, compact work horses, and my word for it, you will find sale for ten such where you will for one trotter; and as for their exhibition, I am inclined to think it is better for the interests of the society to have a separate occasion for that purpose, which would leave people free to devote themselves to the examination of the less exciting, but equally important objects on exhibition,-the cattle, the sheep, the swine, the fruits, the grain, the implements, the flowers, and all the other items which go to diversify and make profitable the noble calling to promote the interests of which your society was called into being.

But I was speaking of the necessity of securing the best of every kind of stock for raising. It costs but little, and many think not any more to raise a Durham, a Devon, or an Ayrshire cow or steer, than a native. Yet, at two or three years old, the selling value of the one is nearly or quite double that of the other.

These are demonstrated facts, and the sooner you adopt them in your practice the sooner will you begin to reap the golden harvest of profits to which your hard labor entitles you.

It is but a few years ago since the average product of wool in all that region of the State with which I was personally acquainted was about three pounds per head, certainly it did not exceed that amount. Now, on the same farms where this average was produced, the average is five or six pounds per head, and I know one farm where an average of nine pounds per head was obtained from a flock of breeding ewes.

How has this wonderful increase been brought about? This man, whose name is Lute, commenced some twelve or fourteen years ago, with a pretty good flock of ewes, which produced, I think, at that time, about four pounds per head. He placed some descriptive mark on each one, and at each shearing time entered in a book the exact product of each, by which he was enabled to retain his best whenever it was necessary or advisable to dispose of any portion of his flock. He has pursued this system until he has secured the extraordinary result I have mentioned. He thinks his sheep do not cost him one cent more than they used to. Here, then, by a careful system of selection and breeding, the product and profit have been more than doubled in a single article.

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