Susan B. Anthony

Speeches & Writings File

Speech before Union Agricultural Society, 1858

Yates County Fair
Dundee -
1858 about
Agricultural Fair.

1
Mr. President &
Men & Women of Yates County

This, I believe, is your fifth
annual gathering under the call of
the "Union Agricultural Society." For
five successive years, your have come
together, [from all parts of this county,]
with your best productions of agriculture,
manufacture, mechanics and art, each
willing to make common stock of his
individual experience, to insure the most
speedy success and advancement of all.
Thus ends one more industrial year, and
as I contemplate the symmetrical proportions
of your horses, cows and sheep, - the perfect-

2
tion of your vegetables & fruits, - your butter
& cheese, - the beauty of your flowers
and paintings, the question suggests itself
to my mind, has the man himself grown
with each advancing year? - In the
march of civilization, have the farmers
[of Yates] themselves, yet come to feel that the development
of the human being, [transcends] in body & soul,
transcends in importance, all outward improvements 
& material gains? -
- The educated farmer now
raises a cabbage or a calf according to a
fixed law; - and he feels, as he labors, an
assurance in the result. - There is no guess
work, chance, or speculation here, - and he realizes 
just what he expects. -- How is it, I ask, in

3
the improvement & culture of his children?
Does he, therein, experience the same satisfactory
and sure results? - To the contrary, 
Fathers & Mothers [of Yates], are not your grown
up sons & daughters, but too often, the very
antipodes of your fondest hopes - signal
failures - perpetual reminders of your
[ignorance] violation of the immutable laws of life? - 
Through generations of ignorance, we are just
beginning, in our day, to query with each
other, if there be not an exact science, by
which man may redeem himself from
the discord & suffering that have thus far
 blighted the human race?
[The Cultivation of the earth]
[is not only one of the most necessary]

3 of
While, by the application of the 
laws of science to vegetable & animal
life, we are bringing beauty & perfection
out of disease & deformity, let us
no longer leave the development and
happiness of man, to blind
chance, crude theories, and
ungoverned passions. —

The cultivation
of the earth is not only one
of the most necessary

4
employments of man, but the most
attractive and important of the useful
sciences. Farming, in its varied departments,
instead of being left to ignorant
men & women, who regard it as a mere
drudgery, should be monopolized by
educated people, who feel it to be a most
delightful & honorable occupation. While
many admit the truth of the propositions,
few are ready to reduce them to actual practice
in every day life.
Whenever farming, in this country,
shall be elevated to a science, [and thus
made] intelligible to the student, and
attractive to the worker, - then will
the sons & daughters reared in the school

5
agriculture, realize the true dignity and
freedom of their lives; - then will they
pity, rather then envy, the sickly clerks
and jaded milliners of our crowded
cities. With a higher development, 
no eloquence could induce them to
exchange their [cheerful] [native] cheerful, sunny homes,
with their abundant harvests, their fruits
and flowers, their majestic forests, and
gentle murmuring streams, for the
gloomy shops, - dark garretts, - gas-lighted
sub-cellars, and thick, foul air of the
vast metropolis. — — But, when the
time comes to leave their childhoods
home, the rolling prairies, the untilled
forests of the western world, shall call

6
them there, to break the silence of the
ages with heroic hand, and add to
natures chorus the cheerful voice of man. - In far-
off hills, the dear old homesteads they would
plant again, and hew down mighty oaks
to cradle art and science there, and teach
old mother earth, in her wildest moods,
that her "appropriate sphere" is to feed 
and comfort man.
If the farmers of New-York
would save their children from the sickly
employments, and debasing vices of our
cities, they must conduct their pursuits
on scientific principles, that shall command
the respect & attention of young men &
women of intelligence, taste & refinement.

7
If Central & Western New York would 
regain its once famous standing as an 
agricultural section of the United States, 
its farmers must not so exclusively 
devote themselves to the raising of grains 
as they now do, and as their fathers did 
before them; but they must turn their 
attention to the cultivation of fruits.
No part of this Union is better adapted to 
the growth of all the varieties of the apple, 
pear, peach, cherry, plum, and a few 
of the hardier kinds of the grape, than 
the section of country stretching from 
Buffalo to Utica, and lying between 
the highlands of the southern tier of 
Counties, and lakes Ontario, Onondaga & Oneida.

8
The increased value of its lands, the 
fabulous facilities of transformation, its soil,
the weevil, the midge, the suet etc. etc. Make
it vain for this region longer to attempt
to compete [with] successfully with 
the great & teeming West, in the growing 
of wheat, corn & similar grains.  Necessity,
therefore, as well as sound policy,
demands that we resort to the cultivation
of fruits, to afford employment to the
sons & daughters of our wealthy farmers,
and to elevate this region to its once 
envied position, as the most productive 
farming portion of the state, and one of 
the best in the Union.
   And by fruit, I mean, not only the

9
larger kinds already mentioned, but the
smaller, as strawberries, raspberries, black
berries, gooseberries, currants, etc. etc.
Men and women, and even boys and girls, can
prosecute all departments of fruit
growing, and in this way, farmers
might make that division of labor
in their families, which is considered
the perfection of industrial pursuits. 
While the men are at work in the
fields, ploughing, planting and harvesting,
the women, and girls and boys may be employed
in planting trees, bushes and vines; -
in pruning, budding and grafting; - in
gathering, barrelling, and canning the
various fruits for the market.

10
[And] How much more delightful and
profitable, and healthful too, would be
such employments for the wives & daughters
of our farmers, than spending three fourths
of their time in the laborious work of
making butter & cheese, and dividing
the other one fourth, between the trivial
employments of embroidering, knitting
stockings & piecing bed-quilts. 
And in this connexion, allow me to
administer a gentle rebuke to a portion
of our farmers. It is always painful to
pass the home of the owner of a valuable
farm, and see that it is not adorned with
a variety of shade-trees, -- enriched by
orchards of the most delicious fruits, - [and]

11
with gardens that [shall] yield, not only the
earliest & choicest vegetables, but an abundance
of the smaller fruits, & where no vines
and flowers mingle their beauty and
fragrance in the scene; - reckless, alike,
of the comfort and taste of wifes and
daughters. - And yet, there are,
doubtless, farmers in the county of Yates,
worth their ten thousand dollars, whose
fruit trees, bushes, & vines would be extravagantly
estimated at the sum of ten dollars.
Their fields wave with golden grains -
their hay is piled up like the pyramids of
Egypt, - their cattle graze on a thousand hills, [are counted by [?]]
their [?] butter & cheese stand first
in the market, and yet their whole stock of

12
fruit consists of a half dozen deformed
apple tress, whose product vies with pebbles
in hardness, & with pickles in sourness, [and]
a scrubby pear tree of two, for whose
gnarled crop the children & the pigs
maintain a fierce contest, and three
or four old cherry trees which have the
good sense to hide their limbs in the
nooks of the fences; While not a plum
tree, a currant or quince bush, or grape
vine, not a strawberry, raspberry, or black
berry can be seen around their premises.
As to shade trees, the lady
of the mansion may have a longing that
way, but the lord of the manor
thinks they would intercept his clear view

15
of his barns & cattle stalls; and so
his great uncouth dwelling braves
the blazing heat of summer, and
shivers in the bellowing blasts of winter
year after year, without a tree to
protect it, or bear it company
through the revolving seasons.
Now, if the men will not reform
this evil, but will persist in devoting
their whole time & energy to the raising
of grain & cattle, then should the
women lay aside their patch-work
and take it in hand, and plant
out fruit trees and bushes, [and] shade
trees & ornamental shrubs.
Mrs. Morden, the sister of our

14
And better still, your own illustrious pioneer
Gemima Wilkinson - who within 20 miles
of the spot where I now stand, - not only
cleared up & managed an extensive farm
but brought with her from Providence R. Island through the trackless wilds -
of the then great West the necessary irons & 
stones and in [here] 1790 built a saw-mill - and
in the year following erected
the first grist-mill west of Utica. [1791]
And, for several years thereafter the [journals]
letters of your own, & the surrounding counties of Ontario, Seneca,
Cuyuga & Tompkins, made their pilgrimages up to the New
Jerusalem to pay tribute to the masterly enterprise & persevering industry
of that wonderful woman. - And, surely, if Gemima
might hew down the mighty forests, dam up the rivers,
build the mills, saw the lumber, grind the corn, & most heroically
contribute to the convenience, wealth & prosperity of those
olden times, the Jennies, & Minnies, & Lizzies of these later
days may cultivate vegetables & fruits for their own health & comfort,
& plant out shade trees & shrubs & flowers to their own taste & pleasure -

14
greatest statesman- William H. Seward -
has a beautiful home near Auburn.
She planned & superintended, day by
day, the building of her cottage, and
planted with her own hands every
tree & shrub, each vine & flower
that adorns & beautifies her grounds.
Although Central &
Western New York is favorably located to
become a fruit growing region in respect
to climate, something must be done to
renovate the soil to enable it to produce
large & compensating crops. Farmers,
whose recollections extend back 25 & 30 years,
tell us that our lands have greatly deteriorated,
in their capacity to yield

15
wheat corn & other grains. - While they are 
far from being worn out, they have, as
a whole, doubtless, become somewhat 
exhausted. - To raise fruits of the
finest qualities, largest quantities, requires
the best possible conditions. Poor, 
hard, wet lands will not bring forth
rich harvests. Transplant to such lands
the very choicest varieties of nursery trees, and if the live at all, the yield
will be meagre in amount, & inferior
in quality.
To ensure permanent success in fruit
culture - three things are necessary.
First - we must thoroughly underdrain
our lands.
Second - we must sub-soil & cultivate

16
more deeply with the common plough.
Third - We must manure them abundantly.
In permitting water to stand upon
the land, and partly soak in & partly evaporate - 
thus baking hard soils & souring soft ones, - 
and chilling both, - we convert into a 
positive curse, what nature intended as 
a rich blessing. - Water is 
an enriching material, when filtered
through the land, - for, beside doing
its allotted work of moistening the earth,
it leaves in the soil all those vegetable &
animal ingredients of which it is so 
largely composed. - 
There are many soils of such 
a nature, that the very best of them

17
will gradually settle down to the hard
pan. - Superficial cultivation fails
to bring up to the air & sun these better
parts; - thus the poorer portions are left
to be used over & over again until
worn out. - Let our
agriculturists subsoil, & plough deep, - 
bring to the surface these dormant
soils - and they will soon give
to New York an added claim to the 
title of Empire State.
You may under-drain thoroughly,
and cultivate deeply, - but if you
annually take exhausting crops
from your farms, and do not
supply the heavy drafts by other

enriching substances, you will ultimately
wear them out, in spite of tiles, and
sub-soil ploughs. _ Do you ask, "where
shall we find these magic fertilizers?
 I answer, "in every swamp, and bog,
and fen, and barn_yard in the
country". _ _ Do you call
these suggestions, "Book-Farming" _
mere theories, that will vanish in
thin air, the moment you attempt
to reduce them to practice? _
Point me, if you can, to the field
or the farm, in this country, or in
England, that has been thoroughly
under_drained, subsoiled, fertilized _
scientifically cultivated _ that has not

19
in two or three years, more than compensated
its owner, in the increased
quantity & quality of its crops.
Judge Sackett of Seneca County, [told me
that he] makes it a rule to put in 10,000
tiles each year at an annual cost of
about $250. -- From a field of cold,
sour soil, that for nine successive
previous years had not yielded him
the cost of seed & labor, he this year
took a bonus crop of wheat - 40 bushels to the acre
& [??? the first crop] more than half paid for its draining.
[???] the first year.
-- Horace Greely, in his address to the
farmers of Monroe County, stated that an
English friend of his, spaded a field of three acres, to the
depth of three feet, putting [middle layer] the second foot

20
of soil upon the surface - at an expense
of $60. and took from it, the first
year, a crop of peas, worth $350.
[Farmers of Yates] The
demand of the hour is small
farms, highly cultivated. - Count
your acres, henceforth, by the
tens, rather than the hundreds; -
and by their depth & richness of
soil - their cubic measure -
rather than the surface they cover.
Thus will you lessen your labors, and
increase your profits. -
[Farmers of Yates], The sooner you
admit that agriculture is a
fixed science, the better for

21
yourselves.- The day has already
dawned, when the farmer may
calculate his harvests with the
same exactness, that we now do
the arrival of an Ocean Steamer,
or a train of cars. - Let
there and end to this ignorant
ridicule of "theoretical farming".
The hand avails nothing, with
out the intelligent head to guide it.
I am for fusion, - not of Bell,
& Douglas, & Breckenridge, - but of
the practical & theoretical farmer,
into one sound man, strong enough
to meet the armies of Worme & Weevil,
rust & rot, midge & mildew, [and]

22
bugs & blight, and
annihilate them by the weapons of science -- the power of his
wisdom.
Having settled the question
that this is to be a fruit growing
region, let us look at the objections
we every day hear.
1st  There would be no adequate
market. -- Both health
and appetite demand a much larger
consumption of fruits than now exists.
The tables of the laboring classes, as well
as those of the professional, should be
bountifully supplied with fruits in their respective
seasons.  Farmers, themselves,
when they understand the laws of life
and health, will live more generally

23
on fruits, - and ignore swines flesh - 
that filthy animal, forbidden to the jews,
for sound reasons, _ Where is
there a family that would not prefer
to breakfast on strawberries & cream,
to fried pork & cabbage. _ When we
consider what a longing all children
have for fruit, it seems the height of
cruelty to force them to the gross fare,
so common in most families._ If the
farmer will feed his own family generously
on fruits, he will save enough in Doctor's
Bills, to pay for the raising.
Thus, for the smaller & tenderer varieties,
which will not bear transportation long
distances, cultivators, after supplying their

24
own tables [bounteously], will find a ready 
market near at home, among those whose 
business is not the tilling of the soil;
and the surplus should be nicely dried,
or sealed up in air tight bottles, for the
Winter Market, to meet the increasing
demand for natural fruits, in preference
to the old fashioned rich conserve.
The hardier kinds, would find 
ready sale in our inland towns & cities;
While the great sea marts, New York
and Boston, would purchase unmeasured
quantities both for home &
foreign consumption.
Never fear a Market. Raise
your delicious fruits, and this will

25
beget an appetite for them among all
classes, and in due time the great
law of demand & supply will regulate
the extent of the growth.
Second=  Fruit is an uncertain, &
hence an unprofitable crop.
This is by no means true.  There
is nothing uncertain in science.
If you will study into the chemical
elements of soil, necessary to each
variety of fruit, success will surely
crown your researches.  Different
grains & vegetables require different conditions,
and it is the same with fruits;  but
all require under-draining, sub-soiling,
and manuring.  Fruit, so far from

X A farmer in Michigan, near Kalamazoo,
sold his Peach crop this year for $5000 --

26
being uncertain, can be made the most
sure & profitable of all productions.
-- Take for example the most [? of all] doubtful -
the peach. - An orchard of [four] five acres,
will yield [six hundred] [a thousand] a thousand dollars in one
single year, beside its crop of grain or
potatoes. -- Now, suppose [there to have been]
but two bearing years in the last eight -- and
that the annual crops raised among the trees, average
$[55] 75 [per year].  -- We should have
from those [four] five acres in the Eight years,
the sum of $2600, nearly -- $55 per acre. Now I ask you
practical farmers, if with [any of] your most skillful
rotation of crops [your best crops] [of grain or gr??] you could have made
those [four] five acres in eight years, yield you an equal amount.
-- A neighbor of mine, set out an acre

27
of black raspberries two years ago - at a
cost of $60. -- Last summer it returned
him $100. and this season nearly $400.
Mrs. Sarah Hallock of Milton, Ulster Co,
who cultivates Antwerp raspberries for the New-York
market, told me that the average yield to
the acre is from five to six hundred dollars.
but that a neighbor of hers, who had [$100. worth of [?] our]
1/4 of an acre, sold from it last year
$250. [?] -- making it at the rate of
$1000 per acre. --
My own Antwerp raspberry experiment -
of which you have all, doubtless,
heard - has thus far proved a failure,
owing, [mainly,] no doubt, to my having
transplanted the roots, from their highly

28
enriched, gravelly homes on the banks
of the Hudson, to the light, sandy
peach loam of Rochester. - there to
soak & chill & rot through the slow
surface evaporation of our long Spring
and Fall rains. - I have expended
over two hundred dollars upon that refractory
raspberry patch during the past four
years, - and this year, have added
Peruvian guano, and still [they] it languishes,
still it [they] cries under-drain, sub-soil,
manure. - -
All of you, who have orchards of
[pears &] apples, will testify to their
[immense] large profits, even under the
present slovenly mode of cultivation. -

Of pears I hardly dare speak, - their
profits are perfectly immense.  We see
them on the fruit stands in our Cities
and R. R. Depots, - but their prices are an
actual prohibition.  The masses have no idea
of their exquisite deliciousness.  They sell in the market
at 8. 10 & 15 dollars per barrel. One single
tree has been known to yield
[The few who have extensive pear orchards]
Mr Lee of Newark Wayne County, has 20,000
pear trees, of the [most-delicious] choicest varieties,
covering 35 acres - This years crop
will more than pay for the entire cost of
the land they occupy. - There is ample
room for competition;  plant out your pear orchard
and you will soon [relieve yourselves from] pay
off your notes and mortgages.

29
Many sections of Central & Western New York
are peculiarly adapted to the grape.
If all our southern sunny slopes
were converted into vineyards, there
would still be ample market for
[all] their rich purple clusters; - for
grapes now sell in our cities, at
the fabulous prices of 5, 10, & 20 cents
per pound. - And then, the
wines from the refuse grapes,
could take the place of the
miserable adulterations, with
which our Fathers, Brothers, Husbands,
and Sons are now drugged and
destroyed. - If, as a Nation, we
demand stimulants, lets us supply

30
the best.  The pure juice of the grape is
decidedly preferable to the vile mineral
& vegetable poisons now bottled up
under fancy & attractive names. -
Indeed it is a grave question,
whether the manufacture & use of
domestic wines, may not be the
long sought panacea for our
proverbial National Drunkenness. -
But, Farmers of Yates,
I am not here to teach you on the
subject of agriculture.  I know very
little of that science in theory,
and much less in practice.
I came, rather, to magnify your

31
calling; - feeling that in out-door
labor, - in simple, pastoral life, -
in communion with great nature,
the race is to be redeemed. - -
When, in the progress of civilization,
the tide shall flow backward, -
when, with higher & better views of
life, we shall turn from the crowded
marts of commerce, to cultivate
the land once more, - then may
we confidently look for a new race
of men & women - sound in body
and mind - with renovated moral
forces and power. -
The farmers work is with
nature, and with natures laws.

32
His profits & successes are the results
of honest toil & scientific observation.
It is not his necessity to study the
windings of the human soul, to play
upon the passions & prejudices of man.
He is simply a co-worker with great
nature, to bring out grand results,
by obedience to fixed & immutable
laws, which all may understand.
Farming is the only
natural and enduring employment,
which has been, and will be
through the ages, the true condition
of the [normal healthful man] race. -
All the trades & professions grow
out of the artificial necessities &

33
diseases of civilized life; - and to a
greater or less extent, compel
false habits. - They shut men up
from the sunshine & the air, - force
them to live in crowds, - in college, court,
camp, - in ships, & shops, & shows, - in factory
& fashion, in cellars & in cells, - in
pulpits & in prisons. - Crimes
spring not from the soil, but from
the whirl & strife of competition & excess, -
in noisy days & sleepless nights, in exile
from love and home, and the companionship
of wife & child.
The first man and woman lived [with his wife] together
in Paradise. - They pruned the vines, and
plucked the fruit, and at the twilight hour
sat down & talked with God.

34
How painful to the young mind,
in its first enthusiasm for right &
justice, is the seeming apathy and
indifference of the great, the good, the
wise, to wrong & oppression. - And,
how hard for the young to learn
that policy - policy - policy - is the
great life lesson for all to practice. -
The wise & foolish - the great & small -
the noble & crafty - all alike, bow the
knee to popular favor. -
In the history of the past,
who cannot recall occasions, where
even our "God-like, Higher Law" statesmen have
not been false to freedom to win
the Presidential Chair. - The

35
Politicians must ever be the hopeless victims
of every wind that blows. -
- Lawyers & Doctors, depending
upon their clients & patients, must
keep one eye open to their opinions
and prejudices.
- [The] Ministers & teachers must
be neutral in politics, and subscribe
to the popular theology &
conventionalisms of the day. - So
long as the pulpit is owned by the
pews, we need not hope to see
truth spring from the alter. -
- Authors & Editors write
for the market.  Hence the [lit]
literature of the day, humbly walks behind its readers.

3 1/2
Soldiers, & sailors are but
wanderers on sea & land
cut off from all the joys of family
& home, restless, unsettled tempest upon
dependant on the will of others.
In politics the soldier
must ever bow to the
administration, the least
independance in thought
word or action, ends all
hope of favour or promotion.

36
- The Mechanics are but the servants
of their employers, and are seldom
in a position to utter their own thoughts.
- Instead of maintaining their dignity,
by making tools for others to handle,
they are but too often tools themselves, in
the hands of the crafty.
Look at that terrible accident
at Lawrence, but one year ago,
where, to make a few thousand
dollars, hundreds of human beings
were so cruelly sacrificed. - The
architects & mechanics, all knew
the defects of that building. - But
who cares for right, when bread, &
money, & honor, & fame, all look another way.

37
- In every department of manufacture
we find an immense amount of
fraud & deception; - not only in wood
and iron, - but in every article of
food & raiment. - A large share
of the profits in trade & commerce
is the result of deliberate falsehood. -
- But the Farmer may
stand in Cathedral vestibule, Counting
room, or great Exchange, and denounce
our gloomy theology, false customs,
vicious habits, and even the administration, -
(though all classes take that liberty
just now), - he may say of men & things,
just what he [sees] deems fit, - unveil the canting
Priest, - the cunning Lawyer, -

38
the intriguing Politician, - the time
serving Editor, and still remain
unmolested in his home. - His
broad acres, - his well filled barns,
will all remain the same. - Mankind
must eat; - and so long as the
farmer holds the bread - the grains, the
vegetables, the fruits, the beef, the poultry,
the butter, cheese & eggs, - all must bow
the knee to him. - - It [?] not
to the hungry, whether they who raise
the bread, believe in Pope or King -
Church or State - Reason or Revelation. -
- No one can hold a rod over the
farmers head, and compel him to
swallow his words, or think other

39
thoughts than his own. - He has
nothing to loose by being thoroughly
independent in thought, word & action.
He is the only man of whom it can be
truly said, "he sits under his own vine
and fig tree, with none to molest, or
make him afraid." -
To the farmers, then, of this
republic, belong the care & keeping
of our sacred rights to life, liberty &
happiness. - The battles of the revolution
were not fought by perfumed
dandies, carpet knights, & half crazed
scholars, - but by stout men, with
sound heads & hearts. - It took the
broad shoulders & [strong] brawny arms of the

40

honest yeomen to wield the battle-axe; And they who won our liberties, must keep them too.
     Every farmer should be a statesman.  The science of government is simple & easily administered, when based as it should be, on the broad principles of justice.  Every body knows what is right, and wrong, but it takes an all seeing devil to tell what is the best policy in trying to do neither.  The farmer should have sufficient education & thought to be able to settle all the questions of the day for himself, without any advice from Squire Jones or Parson Briggs. And if he will only keep out of debt,

Page 3 1/2
Elizabeth Cady 
Stanton 
handwriting   
A.L.

41
so that no fore-closing of mortgages, or
suits of ejectment are to be feared, I
see no reason why he may not be
[thoroughly independent] perfectly free to follow out
his own honest convictions in politics &
religion. - Alone with his plough &
his God let him settle what is right
among families, States & Nations; - For
one law governs all.
The land owners, the producers,
should be at the helm of government.
Those who spend their time in mere
management & talk, are but leeches
on social & governmental life. - The
farmer being independent is the man
above all others to give tone politics.

42
when our well educated farmers shall
make the laws, we shall need no third
house to tell them what to do, nor three
months to do it in.  Could not the
whole business of last winter, worth
doing at all, have been done in six
days?  In olden times it only took
that long to make a world!!
The most promising sons of
all classes, are now educated for the
professions, the second rate ones,
for banking, trade & commerce, while
the stupid, without any education,
are turned out - like Nebuchudnezzar -
to be grazers in the fields;  for no ignorant
man can be called a farmer.

43
This state of things should be reversed for two reasons.
1st - The educated will always hold the governing
power, therefore they should be
independent - the only possible
condition to be honest & true.
2nd - Ignorant people always work to
great disadvantage, where head-work
is needed.  And in no department
of labor is a variety of knowledge
more imperative than in agriculture.
Scientific education would diminish
the labor & increase the profits vastly.
The wealth of this state would be
doubled in less than four years, if from
this hour, the land could be placed
under the control of scientific men & women.

44
No ordinary education will
do for that class to which belong the
feeding & governing of the nation; - and
no ordinary minds should assume
such responsibilities. -
Hence the age demands
a new generation of farmers.
The first steps are already taken; -
Every where we see educated men
putting their theories into practice.
Agricultural schools are already
established in several of the states,
where our youth are to be drilled
in the arts of husbandry.
Agricultural News-Papers are published
in nearly every Free state, and found in the house
[?] of every intelligent farmer.

45
Men & Women of Yates, I
would have you, in the coming year,
take one long onward step yourselves: -
Plow deep into your own souls, and
bring up the [depths of] immortal riches that lie
hidden there. - Demand, this day,
a higher education for yourselves &
your children.  Supply your homes with
books & maps, with charts & globes of
earth & heaven. - Have lectures
on science, literature & art in
your district school & church. -
Fit your own sons & daughters to
be your orators, poets & statesmen.
Remember, "Burns o'er the plow sung sweet his wood notes wild,
And richest Shakespeare was a poor man's child."

46
"Count not that dollar lost, that lifts the mind
above the dust & strife of meaner kind."
No matter, if in the coming time,
your grains & cattle, -- your butter,
cheese & bedquilts do not multiply
so fast, -- so you yourselves, but
grow to the full stature of noble
men & women.
If our farmers, in the future,
are to be the rulers of the nation, --
the expounders of our constitutions &
laws; -- your wives must be
educated.  -- They too must have
time to read & think. -- Remember,
it is the mother that stamps the child.

47
And if [your sons] your sons & daughters [the farmers of the next generations] are to be wise statesmen,
moral heroes, brave [soldiers,] citizens,
true men & women, the mothers must breathe into them
a love of knowledge, justice & freedom. --
Who of you in the ceaseless
round of toil, do not often pause,
and query with yourselves, -- "Can
this be all of life, -- and must I
ever thus drudge on from the [the]
rising sun [in the dead of] till night, merely
to feed the perishable man, while,
all my earnest longings for a
higher better life, must be held
in abeyance to the stern demands
of each passing hour?" --
No: men & women, you cheat

48
yourselves out of all that is best
in life.  The mind needs feeding
too, and your dissatisfactions are but
the heaven born complainings
of the crushed & blighted soul;
Divine Messengers, that speak
of progress, that point to better
days to come, when [the passing] generation after
generation shall be governed by
the true science of life.
The strongest proofs we have
of immortality, are these ceaseless
stretchings after something higher.
But live not wholly in the
future.  Begin now to crowd
into each passing hour, its rightful

sum of profit and of pleasure, and
give not all your lives to gain.
Remember, what you are, goes with
you into eternity;  What you
hoard up, belongs to time alone.
Yes!  "[Oh!] press on!
For the high ones and powerful shall come
To do you reverence;  and the beautiful
Will know the purer language of your soul,
And read it like a talisman of love.
Press on! for it is god-like to unloose
The spirit, and forget yourself in thought
Bending a pinnion for the deeper sky,
And, in the very fetters of your flesh,
Mating with the pure essences of heaven."

Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.