200 NORTH KENNEBEC SOCIETY. 



of his neighbors transplanting trees around his house, he re- 

 marked, with evident j)ride in his own opinion : " If I wished 

 to live in the woods, I would build my house in the woods." 

 This man is opulent, and might, instead of living in the centre 

 of a dominion of monotonous aspect, be encompassed with a 

 thousand different objects, agreeable and entertaining to the 

 eye. The difficulty with him is, he thinks there is nothing val- 

 uable but money, and his eye is as dim or blind to all the forms- 

 of beauty and grace growing from the earth, as that of a poor, 

 uncultivated creature, who, coming out to a village one day from 

 his little old log hut in the forest, and seeing a well-to-do ac- 

 quaintance pruning and grafting his scores and scores of young 

 apple trees, exclaimed with curious wonder: " I vow, Josiah, ef 

 you don't look out, you'll hev to git to your house by spotted 

 lines!" 



Thorough cultivation implies a kind of work the effect of 

 which is profit and beauty united. The best cultivated garden 

 is the handsomest. Such a spot of ground is enriched to the 

 degree of its capacity and its need, and it is worked over, 

 dressed and kept with scrupulous fidelity and care. And the 

 result appears in the form of profit and beauty. Now, if this 

 is the end of well directed labor in the garden, what is the les- 

 son to the farmer with r'espect to his work upon his plowed 

 acres at large ? That he should cultivate them as so many ad- 

 ditions to his garden. Let every portion of his- domain, under 

 the toiler's hand, be fertilized and tilled to make it produce in 

 crops and fruits to the utmost of its capability. As this lesson 

 has been so often repeated, and is so generally accepted, I take 

 it for granted that it is not necessary to prolong my remarks 

 under this head. It seems to be only needful that I should 

 remind you that a small division of land, thoroughly and care- 

 fully cultivated, yields its thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold, and 

 presents its show of fresh and lively beauty; while, on the 

 other hand, the broad fields of the negligent and unskillful 

 farmer, bring forth the sliui harvest, and look at you with the 

 haggard and pallid features of poverty and barrenness. 



The points of excellence you aim for in your buildings, and in 

 your lands, you will strive to attain in your live stock, in your 

 cattle and horses, in your sheep and swine, and in your fowls. 



