By Ohio State Board of Agriculture
that the results of the year 1878 have been exceedingly gratifying to the agriculturists of the State. Crops of all kinds yielded abundantly, and especially is this true of the wheat crop, it being the largest yield for many years past. Reports to this department show, in many instances, yields of from thirty to forty-five bushels per acre.
Crops sustained but little damage by insects. The Colorado potato beetle is still in the land, but the farmers have managed to counteract its destructive proclivities, so that the damage to the potato crop from this source, generally speaking, was light.
During the year, hog cholera prevailed in nearly every section of the State, and the loss of swine by this scourge has been almost unparalleled. As yet science has demonstrated no specific remedy for the disease. N. S. Townshend, Professor of Agriculture in the Ohio University, has given the disease much attention, and in his article on the "losses occasioned by the diseases of domestic animals," he makes special mention of hog cholera.
As will be seen by the reports of the several committees, the State Fair of 1878, in point of exhibition, was a decided success; and though not so in a pecuniary sense, on account of unfavorable weather, the Board feel encouraged that its efforts in the promotion of agriculture and the mechanic arts have not been in vain, as is evidenced by the improved crops, better strains of live stock, improved agricultural machinery, etc., exhibited at each succeeding fair.
The State Board of Agriculture, having for its object the advancement of agriculture, horticulture, and the mechanic arts, has, during its ex. istence, offered nearly a quarter of a million of dollars in cash for premiums, for the purpose of calling together the best products of the soil and dairy, the latest improvements in machinery and implements for aiding agriculture, manufacturing, and lightening the burdens of the household, that all might be shown in one grand exhibition, when the people, stimulated and encouraged by competition, might be excited to a spirit of rivalry and emulation in all that relates to true progress in the various industries of the State.
A majority of the county agricultural societies are reported in a prosperous condition, and the interest manifested by the people of the counties in all that pertains to improvement in agriculture and stock-breeding insures the future prosperity of the county societies.
Since the preparation of the matter for the report of 1877, the State, and especially the agriculturists of the State, have met with a sad and almost irreparable loss in the death of Hon. John H. Klippart, who for nearly twenty-two years was Secretary of the Ohio State Board of Agri
culture, and prepared for publication the annual reports. He was elected to the position in the winter of 1856, and continued in office until the time of his decease, October 25, 1878; was a constant student and a hard worker, bis greatest ambition being the elevation and promotion of the great agricultural interests of the State and Nation.
The resolutions adopted by the Board, expressive of the life, character, and public services of the late Secretary Klippart, will be found embodied in the transactions of the Board, and the action taken by the agricultural convention, in the proceedings of the convention, in addition to which I desire to quote the following from the address of his co-worker in the scientific world, President Edward Orton, of the Ohio University, which is a fitting tribute to one who for so many years devoted his life and energies to the promotion of agriculture:
"1. The first fact to which I call your attention, and the one that to my mind underlies and explains all others, is the eager love of knowledge which characterized all the years of his manhood. This was a fire that nover went out—that never burned low. His eye had been opened to the order of the world. He had come to see that number and right and law underlie the varied phenomena that pass before us, and the charm of this knowledge was for him. never worn out. While his range of interest was wide, it was especially natural science in its later phases that attracted. him most strongly.
"He enjoyed but common or even meager opportunities for education in his early life, and to his last day he bitterly deplored this lack of early training in the fields to which he afterward devoted himself. He had reached the years of man's estate before his interest in science was aroused, and then he made good the deficiencies of his education as best he could, by labor that knew no intermission. But the cares and responsibilities of life were upon him now, and the fragments of time that could be taken from a busy and exacting career could never make amends for the lost opportunities of youth. It was his own bitter experience that led him to take so active an interest in scientifio education. He counted those happy who could lay good foundations for a thorough and practical acqnaintance with the great branches of science, and one of the things that lay nearest his heart was the widest possible extension of such training. He rejoiced most heartily in tho revolution that has gone on in our educational schemes, within the last twenty years, by which the branches that seemed to him so rich in service to humanity are coming to their proper place.
"His early and long continued identification with the agricultural interests of the State obliged him to extend his range of thought and knowledge over a wide field, for agriculture is in some sort an epitome and condensation of all science. The breadth of the field which interested him can be judged in some degree from the books that he gathered.
"2. I note in the second place as a marked and most honorable characteristio of Secretary Klippart the desire to extend and diffuse the knowledge that he himself possessed, or the knowledge of other men that conld be rendered available. He believed in science-in its adaptation to practical life. He believed that many of the ills which the world suffers are remediablo ills, and that for many of them science is the proper cure, and he was instant, in season and out of season, in bringing this knowledge to
the thoughts of men. I know of nothing that lay nearer to his thought and heart than this diffusion of knowledge with a practical intent. His own labors were abundant and untiring in this direction. He ransacked the practical scientific literature of Europe for contributions to the reports of the State Board of Agriculture, the preparation of which constituted so large and honorable a part of his work. These reports will remain a lasting monument to his practical sagacity and to his wide and intelligent interest in the varied phases of the great subject with which he had to do. They stand in the first rank of all such publications in this country. I know of nothing that aroused Mr. Klippart's indignation so quickly and so thoroughly as the disposition on the part of any scientitic man to keep his light to himself. What he prized science for was its power of practical service; and for any man to hide his light under the bushel of exclusiveness or conceit, or to selfishly hoard his knowledge without any effort to make it stimulate and serve the masses of mankind, seemed to him a profanation of a sacred trust.
"I think that Mr. Klippart held his scientific truth in a thoroughly Christian spirit in this regard. He couuted modern science as a new dispensation in its practical application to the wants of men, and he considered it a high aud sacred duty to bring this light to the guidance of men, so far as in him lay.
"3. I note in the third place as a characteristic of our friend which necessarily commauds our honor-his willingness to labor—the steadiness and severity of his intellectual toil. He was emphatically a hard worker. le bad great tenacity of constitution -neither brain nor ege nor band gave out, thongh the tasks laid upon them were excessive and unrelaxing, until many years of too arduous service had been rendered. This love of work has been implied in what I have already said, but it was so prominent a trait in the character of our friend that I cannot forbear making special mention of it here. The steadiness of his application and his mental energy, even when disease had laid its band upon him, shamed many of us who were in sounder health. The disposi. tion to labor, the impulse to action, was too imperious for even his strength. I take it that he was clearly a victim to prolonged overwork. He could see the law for others, but he could not apply it to his own case. There was so much to be done which none but he could do, or which nope could do as well as he, that the moment that his physical strength allowed, he threw himself into the harness again. It has been painful to his friends to see through the years in which his strength and vitality were being slowly but surely sapped, bis inability to rest. When rest came to him perforce in any way, the results of it were always obvious and gratifying; but he could not learn the lesson. While we regret most deeply the fact that he yielded to the temptation to overwork, to excessive mental labor, we are obliged to put a very different estimate on a misjudgment of this sort from that which we attach to the selfish and indolent life of such as go through the world getting rid of all the work they can. We cannot but honor the man who wears out in a worthy work. Wearing out has a very different place in our judg. mont from rusting out." Respectfully,
JAMES W. FLEMING,
Acting Secretary.
OFFICERS AND MEMBERS OF THE BOARD.
OFFICERS FOR 1878. JNO. M. Pugh, Columbus, Franklin county.
.. President, Lucius B. WING, Newark, Licking county
Treasurer. John H. KLIPPART, Columbus, Franklin county (deceased Oct. 24, 1878).. .. Secretary. JAS. W. FLEMING,
Nov. and Dec. Acting Secretary.
OHIO STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE
FROM THE FIRST STATE FAIR TO THE YEAR 1878.
[Members are elected to serve two years. The Board consists of ten members—the term
of service of five expires annually.* ]
Years of service inclusive,
Post-office.
M, L, Sullivant... S. Medaryt M. B. Bateham D. Lapbamt.. F. R. Elliott. J. T. Pugsley. Arthur Wattst J. M. Edwards C. Springer J. G. Gest S. Halloway Allen Trim! let William Caset.. Philo Adams t.. R. W. Musgravet. R. W. Steele William H. Ladd D. Mclotosh J. T. Worthington... Joseph Sullivant John K. Greene James L. Cox B. Stedman Alexander Waddle Abel Krum Lucien Buitles. G. W. Barkert... John M. Millikin Luther Smith Thomas S. Webb, Norton S. Townshend L. Q. Rawson James M. Trimble t. John Reber D. E. Gardnert.. William DeWitt t.. C. W. Potwin T. C. Jones....
Columbus.
Columbus. .
Painesville.
Cincinnati.
Convenience.
Chillicothe.
Canfield.
Meadow Grove.
Xenia.
St. Clairsville.
Hillsborough.
Cleveland.
Huron.
Sulphur Springs.
Dayton,
Brooklyn, N. Y.
Shalers ville.
Zanesville.
Washington, D. C.
South Charleston,
Cherry Valloy.
Marietta.
Hamilton.
West Liberty.
Massillon.
Fremont.
Lancaster.
Toledo.
Zanesville,
Delaware.