282 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



vance as the age advances, profit by examples which are presented 

 to him, raise the best o£ every tiling — good things always sell for good 

 prices; take care of your land and it will take care of you. Don't 

 forget that. 



The most useful man in a community is he who produces some- 

 thing. The farmer is the chief producer, and that man who pro- 

 duces the most on a given number of acres of land with the least 

 amount of labor or money is the best farmer. This requires an 

 enlightened knowledge of the business in which he is engaged. There 

 can be no greater error than that the life of a farmer offers no field 

 to ambition and no reward for success. Many of the most distin- 

 guished men of our country have devoted their lives to farming. 

 XVashington and Jefferson were farmers; Clay and Webster were 

 farmers, although they each were professional men. The farm is 

 the home of industry, and often the birthplace of genius. How many 

 of our most distinguished men have been born on the farm, and 

 through all the earlier years of their lives have toiled with their own 

 hands. They were disciplined in the rugged paths of labor; their 

 food was coarse; their clothes plain, and often home made; but their 

 sleep was sound; their conscience was clear. As one of the humblest 

 among you, I would not exchange the pleasing and peaceful memo- 

 ries of my earlier farm life, toilsome though it was, for any brief 

 honors I might enjoy; for this kind of discipline is as necessary to 

 mental as to physical development. It fits the boy to become a man. 

 The broad fields, the sky, the mountains, and all their great and 

 sublime beauties, makes a man as rugged as Nature is, and the grand- 

 est work of Nature. 



LABOR ON THE FARM, 



But a farmer has to work. Who that succeeds in life does not? 

 The great struggle of life is a contest often for existence, always with 

 the hope of success, sometimes with a certainty of failure. Does the 

 successful professional man get on without work? Does your mer- 

 chant prosper without work? Go to your merchants and ask them the 

 number of hours they work each day. Show me the man who does 

 not work and I will show you a man you ought to avoid. Life is not 

 a holiday, nor in any respect is the farm a plaj^ground. Farming is 

 not learned in theory alone; it is a practical business, requiring prac- 

 tical knowledge of a larger number of subjects than any other pur- 

 suit. The principles of the law are learned in the colleges, in the 

 library, or in the office. Surveying must be studied before it can be 

 practiced. Medicine and surgery requires the most careful applica- 

 tion and a knowledge of its principles before the student attempts to 

 be a doctor. But the prevailing opinion is that anybody can be a 

 farmer. The boy that is unfit for anything else is turned loose on 

 the farm with a belief that farming is born in a man, and that knowl- 

 edge of farming comes with his first breath. Why, you often see 

 gentlemen of leisure, especially in the older States, when they become 

 wearied of all other pursuits, turn farmer just to keep themselves 

 busy. They don't hurt anything, they do no harm, they all fail at it, 

 and then we hear the old cry that farming does not pay. They for- 

 get that successful farming depends more on the man than on the 

 farm. You all know that success is not an accident; there is no luck 

 about farming, unless sometimes come bad luck. You have to force 

 success; it is just like other business, you must follow it well and 



