ADDRESSES AT THE GRAND STAND.

HON. T. H. HINCHMAN, PRESIDING.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, FELLOW-CITIZENS: We meet today to recall and acknowledge the many favors conferred by Divine Providence on the people of this State in the past fifty years, and to mark the progress made. During the early years of a State this is necessarily material. Labor and efforts tend mainly to develop and establish industries; and to build, endow and maintain educational and other institutions.

The Legislature and Governor have considered it fitting and appropriate to celebrate this day, apprehensive that events beyond their control may forbid their observance of a Centennial.

We have lived in an extraordinary epoch. The inventions and developments the past fifty years have more than eclipsed those of many centuries, and, in some respects, those of all centuries. The advancement has been educational, in agriculture, invention, mechanics, physics, science and industry, rather than in religion, morals, architecture or art.

The commission appointed have aimed to present in addresses to be delivered this day, records of the past, appropriate to the occasion, which will be published in book form, for the information of the absent, those who are to follow and for those who will celebrate a centennial fifty years hence.

If in the coming half-century, a corresponding material and physical advancement is made, together with religious, moral, intellectual, medicinal and sanitary acquirements, this State will occupy a proud and distinguished position.

Moral, intellectual, or sanitary progress is not presented at the time, save only as it cannot be eliminated from the educational. Neither is architecture or art included. The two last are yet in a rudimentary state. They are indicative of wealth and luxury, and eventually mark culmination and decline, and become the enduring monuments of past greatness, when all things else have crumbled, decayed, or become oblivious. May many

centuries pass before art and architecture reach their climax in Michigan.

Shall we anticipate, though not in a sanguine or prophetic spirit, that intellectual, moral and sanitary achievements, illustrated and presented by historical, poetical, social words and literature may be the leading themes and characteristics of the gathering to celebrate the Centennial in 1936?

AGRICULTURE.

HON. W. L. WEBBER.

MR. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: It seems peculiarly appropriate for me to take part in this celebration. It is the semicentennial of the State; it is also the semi-centennial of my residence therein. Fifty years ago, in the early days of June, among those who were crowding the means of transportation to reach Michigan, to seek homes for themselves and to assist in developing the agricultural resources of the State, was my father with his family. On the 11th day of June, 1836, he brought us to the farm which he had purchased from the Government, in the township of Hartland, Livingston county, consisting of two hundred acres of heavy oak openings, with a stiff clay soil. Though but a youth at the time, I took part with him in transforming this wilderness into a farm. The first step was to cut the heavy growth of timber from the land, to select sufficient therefrom to make rails with which to fence the fields, and to burn the remainder in order that the land might be rid of its incumbrance-an incumbrance then, but which, if standing now upon the soil, would more than add double to its present value. After the clearing of the land, the heavy breaking-up plow was brought into use, with its four-yoke of oxen as a team; and it was considered good work if threequarters of the surface was fitted for the first crop. The many stumps and roots too large to be taken out by the plow, forbade more than this partial cultivation of the soil, and rendered extremely difficult the work which was performed.

The life of the pioneer was no life for a lazy man. The life of one was like the life of all,-constant labor to provide means for supporting the family. It was the life of the woodsman combined with the life of the farmer. Working early and late, sometimes

in sunshine, and often in storm, the pioneers laid the foundation in Michigan for its glorious development as an agricultural State. In those early days there were no highways fit to travel, mills were at a distance, and there were practically no markets. The pioneers contended against odds which many of the present generation would consider it vain to battle against. But it was necessary that some money should be procured from the farm products, because taxes must be paid in cash. To obtain this money wheat was considered well sold at fifty cents a bushel. In my own experience, I have taken eight barrels of flour to Detroit, a distance of fifty miles, and over the roads as then existing a journey of five or six days, and received only $3 a barrel, or $24 for the whole load.

But though the toil was severe there was no repining. There was no complaining of long hours or severe labor. There were many compensations for the hardships to which the pioneers submitted. Every man was willing to share with those who needed; every neighbor was a friend. Every latch-string was out, and no one feared to admit a stranger lest he might admit a foe. There was game in the woods, and fish in the ponds and streams, and there were wild fruits growing in the forest. There was a genuine spirit of independence among the people, a spirit of self-reliance and confidence, with which every difficulty was met, and, so far as practicable, overcome. It was the best kind of a life to promote that individual development of character, that spirit of selfreliance which constitutes the best type of manhood.

The art of agriculture is the most ancient known to man, whether civilized or barbarian. Earliest history accords it a place among the most honorable of employments. Among the ancient Romans it was not considered beneath their dignity for Senators to engage in this employment. The example of Cincinnatus, who left his plow to guide armies in the field, returning again after victory to his peaceful pursuits, has ever been applauded as one of the most noble on record. Virgil, nearly two thousand years ago, in his "Georgics," gives specific directions for the cultivation of the soil. He tells us that we should plow in early spring; that a four-fold plowing will find its reward; that we should not fight against nature, but understand the soil. That we should give proper attention to drainage. He gives specific directions for the care of domestic animals, and the rearing of fruits, and glorifies the life of the husbandman as follows:

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“O, husbandmen, too dear to Fortune, if they know their own blessedness! For them of herself, far from the clash of arms, allrighteous Earth pours from her soil an easy sustenance." They have "repose without a care, and a life that knows not what disappointment is, a life enriched with manifold treasures the lowing of oxen, and soft slumber beneath the trees are theirs, with them * * is a band of youths inured to toil, and accustomed to little; the sacred rites of Heaven, and reverend sires Justice, as she departed from earth, planted among them her latest footsteps."

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The importance of agriculture to the development of the State was fully understood and appreciated in the early days in Michigan by those in official position. In the message of Governor Mason, in January, 1838, among other things, he says:

"The character of industry upon which the real prosperity of the State is most dependent, is the cultivation of the soil. Most nations have considered it their policy to encourage some particular branch of industry, as the one from which they could derive the most abundant resources of wealth. But whilst the true policy of a free Government is to extend equal protection to every department of trade, we are too apt to overlook the interest of the agriculturist. Michigan, it is true, may and will exhibit an important field for successful domestic manufactures, but the cultivation of her soil must at all times be regarded as the great source of her prosperity. It furnishes not only the means of human subsistence, but supplies materials for manufactures, as well as the chief resources of commerce. Whatever encourage

ment, therefore, we secure for the agricultural interest, extends a benefit to every other department of industry. Agriculture being, then, a primary and most important branch of State economy, it is the duty of the Legislature, not only to protect its members from disproportionate burdens, but to facilitate to them the advantages derived from the researches of science, and the discoveries and improvements of the age. With this object in view, I would recommend the creation of a board or society, whose duty it would be to foster and encourage this great source of national prosperity and independence, to gather desirable information, and at the public expense, distribute it to the farmers of the State. Such a measure, I have no doubt, would in a short time be productive of important public consequences."

A year later, he again calls the attention of the Legislature to this subject, saying:

"The agricultural interest is one of great importance, and claims with justice the protection of the Government, and yet it has received less aid from direct legislation, than any other de

partment of industry. But I feel that when it is recollected how essentially the real prosperity of Michigan depends upon the cultivation of her soil and the labors of her husbandmen, the subject will receive your earnest consideration and favorable action."

In the first constitution adopted by the State, which was framed by the convention held in 1835, it is provided, among other things, that "The Legislature shall encourage, by all suitable means, the promotion of intellectual, scientifical and agricultural improvement."

The reverses which the people of Michigan sustained, beginning in 1838, when their unsound financial system exploded, and which continued for several years, prevented attention to the subject of agriculture to that extent which its importance demanded. But when brighter days began to dawn, carrying out the policy above suggested the correctness of which all admitted-there was formed at Lansing, the capital of the State, on the 17th of March, 1849, The Michigan State Agricultural Society. The call for the first meeting of this organization was signed by the executive officers of the State, and members of the Senate and House of Representatives. The first President of the society was Hon. Epaphroditus Ransom, of Kalamazoo, and the first Recording Secretary was J. C. Holmes, of Wayne. Hon. Henry Chamberlain, of Berrien county, was one of the signers to the first call, and acted as secretary of the meeting at which the organization was perfected. Hon. Wm. M. Fenton (then Lieutenant Governor) delivered an address, in which, speaking of the farmers, he says that they are "lovers of their country for their country's sake; when danger threatens our institutions from without, or turbulence reigns within, we can rely upon the aid of such a community to resist every encroachment, and ward off every impending danger. Virtue, intelligence, and that religion which is disconnected with gorgeous pomp and show, animates and inspires them to be jealous of their privileges, and ready to defend, if needs be, their homes, rendered doubly dear by their position, independent, as it must ever comparatively be, of all the world beside."

And in closing, he says:

"If we desire to perpetuate for the benefit of those who are to succeed us, the blessings we enjoy, to erect for ourselves and for after ages, the most enduring superstructure of a free Government,