No. 112.] 369 



ing to exalt the condition of the farmer. But what is to be done 

 in the mean time ? Could not every district school have a class 

 in which the largest of the scholars shall be instructed in the rudi- 

 ments of that knowledge, which chiefly tells upon the agricultu- 

 ral interests. Let a premium be given by every county society to 

 the scholar who has made the greatest progress in a knowledge of 

 those sciences connected with agriculture — and let this, and simi- 

 lar associations employ lecturers who shall go through the most 

 populous districts and giv^e a course of experiments in chemistry 

 and of instruction on other topics of practical interest ; and thus 

 a laudable ambition to improve, will be excited. So that nothing 

 short of a thorough education will satisfy the aspiring young man, 

 who intends to make this his profession. 



^'Depend upon it, till the farmer comes to regard his business as 

 one of the professions, and determines to give his children an 

 education equal to this, his sons will go off with the current that 

 is now setting in far and wide, carrying the liigli spirited young 

 men with it. There are the large villages rising up along the 

 lines of our railroads — there are the great cities fed by these flow- 

 ing arteries — there is the El Dorado of the south, and the stirring 

 commerce of the wide, wide w^orld, all tempting the young far- 

 mer to cross the line fence over which his father has never looked, 

 where he now rests happy and contented, w^ondering at the fancies 

 which can tempt his children to prefer another scene to that great 

 Spot of land. But you may wonder on and be left alone at the 

 rate in which those changes are proceeding. Those who have 

 been brought up to the most honorable employment in the world 

 are found in hundreds as clerks, as boatmen and brakemen, and 

 in many other inferior employments, while the iarms arc cultiva- 

 ted by foreigners. And it is a law proved by past history that 

 they who cultivate the land come in time to possess it. 



"Be progressive then, and give your sons an interest in the im- 

 provement. Put uut your capital in enriching the soil, in beauti- 

 fying your place, so that the young people around you may have 

 nothing to envy as tliey look abroad. But chietly let tliem have 

 something to occupy tlieir minds at home in this (hiy of movement. 

 Prosperous farmers are found ready to send their sons and daugh- 



[Afi. Tr. '53 ] Y 



