Ill 



with care ; they will create discussions, and lessons of practical utility will be in- 

 culcated ; tliey will Lave a tendency to excite an appetite for agricultural and 

 horticultural knowledge, and induce thinking, reasoning men, to examine more 

 attentively the pages of those works devoted to the interest of the farmer. 



Although our occupation has in it much of toil and labor, it has likewise much, 

 of pleasure and enjoyment. 



The inhabitants of cities live in a constant state of feverish excitement — every 

 event that happens on any point of the globe's surface is transmitted to them 

 like an electric shock, the consequence is, a morbid sensibility is generated 

 throughout the whole community ; the nervous system is unstrung ; predisposi- 

 tion to disease ensues, which lays them at the mercy of almost every breath of 

 heaven. 



Not so with us — in the retirement of our homes we are exempt from the daily 

 shocks which agitate a mercantile community. 



Necessary labor invigorates our physical constitutions, and we realize, nearer 

 than any other class, the blessings for which the prophet of old prayed for, when 

 he said, " Give me neither poverty nor riches." And if our gains are small, we 

 feel that they are secure, not liable to be swept away by the next arrival from 

 Europe, or the next telegraphic dispatch. 



The farmer who with a philosophic eye can watch the development and 

 growth of his domestic animals, and trace the progress of vegetation from the 

 bursting of the bulb to the perfection of fruit, is in possession of sources of enjoy- 

 ment to which the denizen of a city is a stranger. 



In the economy of vegetation alone there is enough to claim our unceasing 

 wonder and praise. 



Thouo-h discord may pervade human organizations and thwart their ends, it 

 never interferes with the operations of the Deity, whose works are characterized 

 by perfection of movement in all their parts, each atom fulfilling its proper des- 

 tiny. 



It is the happy province of the agriculturist to watch and study the operations 

 of this mechanism, and when, by the aid of science, he can comprehend its sim- 

 plicity and perfection, there is a charm thrown around his pursuit commanding 

 his most fervent admiration and praise. 



The infinite variety interwoven in earth's garland, from the' humble lichen 

 that clings to the sterile rock, to the lofty tree whose towering branches shelter 

 us from the noon-day sun, affords numberless examj^les of wise adaptation, all 

 tending directly or indirectly to promote the progress and prosperity of man. 



And when we reflect upon the great variety of plants, some of which are 

 adapted to the particular wants of each species of animal and insect, during 

 every successive period of their existence, we are overcome with a mute feeling 



