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Rh the promise of offerings the mind craves, and bespeaks the approach of an abundant harvest for our physical well-being; a season of plenty for the husbandman, his fields, flocks and herds; a season in which, with a light heart, he may go forth to the hills, valleys and fields and welcome this plenteous outpouring from the liberal hand of the great Giver of all things.

—Governor S. F. Chadwick.

The links in the chain of personal friendship will again be brightened by those of us who long ago, in poverty and obscurity, shared the common toils and dangers incident to the reclaiming of the wilderness from the dominion of the savages and wild beasts, causing it to "bud and blossom as the rose." Those of us who have passed the meridian of life can hardly realize the changes that have taken place under our observation since the hopeful days of our young and vigorous manhood. We have witnessed the invasion of the solitude of the forests by civilization. We have seen what we used to know from our school geographies as "the great American desert," stretching away nearly 2,000 miles west from the borders of the old republic to the Pacific, dotted all over with cities, towns and rich productive farms. The domestic cattle of the