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thrive in the hot-beds of the populous town, but dies out upon the farm. 

 Such, I believe, in all sincerity, is the natural influence of agricultural 

 pursuits. So far as my own observation extends, the earnest ag- 

 riculturist is rarely a skeptic — all honor to the profession, the true ten- 

 dency of which is to raise men's thoughts to that being by whose infi- 

 nite benevolence, life and all its attendant comforts are ours. This it 

 is that constitutes the peculiar dignity of the farmer's mission, and I 

 have little sympathy with those young men whose mistaken ambition 

 and false views of life lead them to abandon an employment which has 

 so many incitements to virtue, and to seek a petty position in some 

 <:ity where the temptations to vice are so great and the pay so small. 



And now let me crave your indulgence while I furnish a few hints as 

 to the education requisite to the successful prosecution of the farmer's 

 work. On this topic I confess to some misgiving as to my own ability to 

 give instruction. For although I look forward with })leasure to the 

 prospect of ending my days in the tranquil enjoyment which such an 

 occupation affords, still I am, as yet, without any very extensive practi- 

 cal experience. But observation and careful reflection on my own part, 

 have long since induced the belief that in a business like the farmer's, 

 which combines both mental and manual effort, a special educational 

 preparation is a pre-requisite to complete success. Indeed, I will hazard 

 the general assertion that young men, aye, and in many cases, young 

 women, too, could spend with incalculable profit a given time in some 

 well-conducted institution, where they could learn the elements of sci- 

 ence and art which underlie the employment of their future years. 

 Every thrifty farmer knows that judicious head-work diminishes toil- 

 some hand-work in a hundred-fold ratio; and I do not fear that, before 

 an audience of intelligent men, I shall give utterance to an unpalatable 

 ultraism, wheti I say that, other things being equal, that farm will 

 yield the most generous returns on which labor is expended upon sci- 

 entific principles. There is now no department of human industry to 

 which art does not give most important contributions. The great 

 glory of the present age lies in the fact that science has scouted, as 

 fruitless and futile, the idle speculations of olden time — has joined hands 

 with labor, and turned, like a good angel, to minister to the actual ne- 

 cessities of mankind. All know full well how eflectually the aids it has 



