Historical encyclopedia of Illinois . y danger lay in what seemed,even a score of years ago, the inexhaustible rich-ness of our fields. But under the leadership ofour agricultural colleges, our experiment stationsour farmers institutes, and our great Depart-ment of Agriculture, we have finally learned thatthere can be no permanent agriculture withouta scientific agriculture. We now know that you cannot everlastinglysubtract from the soil, returning nothing to it,even upon our richest lands, without ultimateImpoverishment. I undertake to say that if themethods which obtained a generation ago in
Historical encyclopedia of Illinois . y danger lay in what seemed,even a score of years ago, the inexhaustible rich-ness of our fields. But under the leadership ofour agricultural colleges, our experiment stationsour farmers institutes, and our great Depart-ment of Agriculture, we have finally learned thatthere can be no permanent agriculture withouta scientific agriculture. We now know that you cannot everlastinglysubtract from the soil, returning nothing to it,even upon our richest lands, without ultimateImpoverishment. I undertake to say that if themethods which obtained a generation ago in theMississippi Valley,—richer agriculturally thanany like area any^vhere in the world—had con-tinued for a hundred .years, that Valley wouldhave become as unproductive as those sectionsof the East where farms are only the toy of thewell-to-do. One result of the new agriculture is of politi-cal and far-reaching importance. Much as weadmire our great cities, we must all confess thatthe security of the Republic in the future abides. C(^. /^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ HISTOKY OF OGLE C0U2vTY. 657 largely in our rural populations. In every crisis,whether of war or peace, we turn confidentlyfor safety to the sober, deliberate judgment ofthose who dwell apai-t from the great metropo-lises. Many thoughtful people have noted with re-gret the trend from the country towards thelarger centers of population. The new agri-culture is doing more to attach the farmerssons to the soil than all other causes every advance of science in its relation toagriculture the drudgery of the farm has already begun to be substituted for ita noble profession in which the soils, the crops,and the improved breeds of domestic animalsbecome the servants of the farmers brain. These words of Col. Lowden give an idea ofwhat he is doing at Sinnissippi Farm. James Moore entered land from the Goveru-ment which is now the site of the Lowden Hemenway, who made his start in life in adrug-s
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