ANDROSCOGGIN COUNTY SOCIETY. 225 



your homes, will breathe an influence upon tlie life of the child, 

 which will strengthen with everj advancing year, and bless everj 

 opening prospect of existence. But if there be no home attraction 

 for the child — nothing to render real the ideal beauties of the soul — 

 nothing to quicken and deepen the glowing aiFections of the heart, 

 how can we expect to win them to rural pursuits, and render them 

 content and happy? A farmer's life is a life of toil, and its ingath- 

 erings are necessarily slow. And this fact must be relieved by 

 something more than broad acres of waving grain. To make the 

 farm and its toil inviting, you must throw around it those joys and 

 pleasures and enchantments, which may be afforded, and which re- 

 lieve toil of its severity. 



And this brings me back to the objection — that you have no taste 

 for these things. And here is the great secret. Your toil is not a 

 realized enjoyment. You repine over your lot in life, instead of 

 recounting with gratitude its numerously bestowed blessings. Farm- 

 ing has become unpopular, because the farmer has taken so little 

 pride in his calling. There are exceptions ; but as a class, if they 

 can scrape together sufficient to support the family and pay taxes, 

 they look for nothing more. And as most farms are managed, how 

 in the nature of things even so much can be done, is more than I 

 can comprehend. Look at the fact as it is. How many farms within 

 the limits of this society are here represented ? Not one in ten — 

 probably not one in twenty. No products from your fields — nothing 

 from your stables — eight or a dozen o6ws, but nothing from your 

 dairy. And all this, while there is not an article here on exhibi- 

 tion, and for which a premium will be awarded, but that an equal 

 or better might have been brought. 



The trouble is, you do not employ the means within your reach, 

 and you are somewhat determined in the resolution that you will 

 not. To till the soil upon educated principles is something that but 

 few will have anything to do with. But to crown the interests of 

 agriculture with success, the farm must be tilled physically, intel- 

 lectually, and morally — the hand, the head and the heart, must be 

 engaged, and toil in concert. Head-work and heart-work are as 

 necessary on the farm, and as essential to success, as hand- work. 

 "We must have a heart-love for our work, or else we pursue it with- 

 out ambition ; and without intelligence we pursue it blindly. 

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