156 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



feature is too much ignored. A reasonable certainty of better 

 results will divert us from old channels and draw us out of old 

 ruts ; it requires no argument to produce a change when you have 

 demonstrated its utility. 



Having touched briefly upon what I conceive to be the more 

 general errors of farmers, — avoiding details as much as possible, 

 one other idea occurs to me at this point in regard to keeping 

 cattle, and I propose to present a problem for the consideration of 

 those present. A and B have each a pair of four years old oxen, 

 equal in form, symmetry and aptitude to take on flesh and fat, and , 

 girt 6 feet and 6 inches and weigh 2700 lbs. on the first day of 

 November, 1871 ; each has the same amount of work to do during 

 the winter, simply haul their fire wood. A feeds his in such a 

 manner as to keep them in the same condition as to flesh and of 

 the same size and weight on the first day of May following. B 

 feeds his in such a manner as to grow them to 7 feet and 2 inches 

 in girt and to weigh 3400 lbs. A's cattle at 40 per cent, shrink- 

 age weigh 1620, and at 8 cents per lb. bring $129.60; B's cattle 

 at 35 per cent, shrinkage weigh 2210 lbs. and bring 10 cents per 

 lb., $221.00— B's $91.40 more than A's. The question is, which 

 course had better be pursued by farmers in Maine ? 



There are other obstacles in the way of the farmer, and what 

 retards farming more than almost anything else is, that the farmer 

 feels himself in some measure degraded, he feels that he is ranked 

 below the mechanic and far below the professional man. The 

 farmer's boys feel it, and their chief aim is to obtain an education 

 so to be prepared to do other business, other than manual labor 

 on the farm. Why is this so ? Is the cultivation of the soil more 

 degrading than other kinds of labor? Is not physical labor sub- 

 stantially the same, whether it be tilling the soil, tending a saw 

 mill or working in a blacksmith's shop ? Is not the well-to-do, 

 independent farmer, from the very nature of his business, the rich- 

 est and happiest man in. the world ? I do not mean that he has 

 the most money, but he has a competence, and with no disturbing 

 troubles. No honest pursuit of life degrades a man. It is de- 

 grading to be without useful occupation. Among the Romans it 

 was the man who honored the house, not the house the man. 



I hold that the man who cultivates the soil stands on an equality 

 with the man engaged in any other honorable pursuit ; all pursuits 

 are equally necessary, and all are dependent upon each other. It 

 is a wise provision of Providence that men should be endowed 



