mission is so sacred, their function so high as to place them beyond
comment; and of them I have nothing to say, except that I propose to
say nothing.

Among the products of agriculture I of course intended to include the
farmer's stock, and I must here bear my tribute of admiration to the
fine display which has been made of horned cattle; particularly of
work oxen, remarkable for their size, their adaptation to the purposes
for which they are kept and the docility and yet the unflagging spirit
which they manifested in the trials of strength and of deep ploughing.
I have not before seen such fine specimens of the Devon cattle,--of
course I speak of them as they present themselves to the eye--not
pretending to judge of their relative value to other stock exhibited.
Improvement in the breed of domestic animals goes hand in hand with
agricultural mechanism, to give the ability to make two blades of
grass to grow where but one grew before, and thus to render you indeed
benefactors. Skill in the use, and ingenuity in devising and
constructing implements, serve to render labor productive, and relieve
it of its most dreary drudgery. It is this mechanical ingenuity which
has compensated for the high price of labor among us, and aided in the
development of resources which makes our country the greatest of the
earth. Blest by soil, climate and government, if we are, as claimed,
pre-eminent among nations, it is because we have added to other
advantages a more general cultivation of the mind. The superiority is
attributable not so much to physical energy, activity and
perseverance, as to the improvement of that portion of the man which
lies above the eyes.

Though you have done much for the improvement of agricultural
implements, your work is far from being completed. It is not a little