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manures, in neatness of execution, in the selection of seed and breeds of cat- 

 tle, horses, hogs and sheep, we are far behind Great Britain, Belgium, and 

 some other countries in Europe. We have here a singular illustration of the 

 manner in "which intelligence affects the laborer on one hand, and want and 

 necessity on the other. The European laborer, pressed by the fear of want 

 or starvation, and hoping for little beyond mere subsistence, bends his ener- 

 gies to obtain by ancient methods and known appliances, and by the most 

 rigid economy and industry, the greatest possible amount for the current year. 

 His strife is to keep soid and body together. The American, on tlie other 

 hand, with cheap land all around him, cheered by a certainty of adequate 

 support, stimulated by hope and ambition, takes a prospective view of his 

 condition, studies to abridge his toils, has more disposition and better oppor- 

 tunities to try new experiments. Hence his success over other people in this 

 branch of agriculture. 



I fear I am becoming tedious, and must draw to a close. I have endeavored 

 to make my remarks suggestive and stimulating, if not instructive. If I have 

 aroused one mind to renewed activity, impressed one vital principle of action, 

 exploded a single prejudice, and more especially, if I have convinced one in- 

 credulous, mistaken, or presumptuous man that there is no resting place in 

 the progress and development of agricultural improvement, then my labor is 

 well repaid. We have all been accustomed to hear men say, " It is enough to 

 plant as my fathers planted, to plough as they ploughed. Any man can sow 

 the seed, and hoe the crop. Any man can harvest. I want no book farming 

 about me." Had our forefathers so reasoned and so acted, we should have 

 been barbarians. There is one kind of man that can consistently so reason. 

 Show me the man so dead to all human sympathies that he can deliberately 

 stand up and say that he owes nothing to the past for the high state of civili- 

 zation in which he lives, for the protection afforded by good government, for 

 the genial comforts of a secure home, for the treasures of intellect and wit, 

 and discovery, stored up in the literature of his age, who acknowledges there- 

 for no debt of gratitude, and who spurns the obligation to transmtt these 

 priceless blessings to posterity, and then you show me a man who can with 

 consistency and without a blush, say that he knows enough. 



It is but a few days since that I saw an assumption in a leading periodical 

 of a peculiar part of our own country, that history affords no record of a great, 

 refined rural population, where the mass of the laborers were not servile, 

 either slaves or serfs. Without suffering our minds to be melted with soitow, 

 or inflamed with indignation at the remarks, let us reflect on the lesson it 

 aftbrds. The broad assumption is, that labor on the soil is incompatible with 

 refinement of thought or manners, incompatible with intellectual devdopment. 

 But the severest tests of the physical man in every other walk of life, have 

 as often strengthened as weakened the intellect, as often conferred dignity 

 and refinement, as coarseness of manners. The truth is, that every pursuit 

 which calls into action most of the faculties of man, should produce a har- 

 monious development. We frequently find this result in the sailor, the sol- 

 dier, the engineer, the merchant ; and in many portions of our own country 



