RENOVATING OUR FARMS. 57 



industry. Nevertheless, we should not let this be to the 

 exclusion of such other farm crops as are indispensable for 

 our daily consumption, and by a well managed system of 

 mixed husbandry upon our farms, we shall be able to have a 

 sufficient surplus to pay for all of our groceries, thereby 

 stopping a great leak and waste upon our farms yearly, 

 leaving us a yearly surplus to replenish our soil with the 

 plant-food already gone for the growth and maturity of the 

 past crops taken from the farm, thus leaving the soil in a 

 better condition for the succeeding crops. 



And now in closing my remarks, I can only say by way of 

 illustration, that it is study and practice that constitutes the 

 eminent statesman, as also the lawyer, phj'sician, merchant, 

 manufacturer and ship-master. And here let me say, it is 

 not for the want of brains that the farmer is a whit behind 

 the literary man, or that he is not as keen and far-seeing as 

 anj^ other class of men in the community, but a lack on his 

 own account of not reading himself up on his o^vn profession, 

 and other matters he has to do and contend with, and that, 

 too, without any reasonable excuse on his part, for there is 

 no lack of reading matter at this time in our profession, as 

 well as in other professions of the day. And the farmer has, 

 or should have, his time for his daily labor with his hands 

 limited as a general thing in his farm work, to ten hours per 

 day, and leaving at least from to two four hours daily in read- 

 ing up his profession, leaving a good and sufficient margin for 

 sleep, and from ten to twelve hours per day sufficient for all 

 practical purposes. 



