74 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



This was followed b}- the Secretary in an expression of thanks 

 and in explanation of the character of the work of the Institute, 

 after which a paper was read upon the subject 



HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? 

 By Frank Buck, of Orland. 



When one of Massachusetts' sons said, in reply to this question, 

 "a little more," he gave a representative answer. Want is the 

 normal condition of the race. This is not dependent upon any geo- 

 graphical boundaries. Any distinction of race or color does not 

 supply it ; social position often increases rather than diminishes 

 it. How this want shall be supplied is the question that stares us 

 in the face from the cradle to the grave. That some men have less, 

 are content with less, get along with less, than others, is by no 

 means a mooted question. The nearer the animal man lives, the 

 nearer the animal he is and the more circumscribed his wants. Let 

 him cultivate the intellect, increase the moral perceptions, and he 

 becomes lifted in the scale, gets a wider range, and as the mental 

 faculties are developed, clamorings arise which are potent and must 

 be met. To specify some of the wants of the common farmer and 

 indicate, in passing, some of the ways these can be met will be the 

 object of this paper. 



First, he does not want more land ; he has acres enough ; but he 

 does want to remember that soil under his feet is his, not for six 

 inches only, but for six feet, if he will but improve it. He wants 

 to understand (I use want here in the sense of need, for the less a 

 man feels his want the greater his need), that air and sunlight are 

 as necessary- to plant gi'owth as for the growth of boys and girls. 

 The man who would put his children in a cold damp cellar and ex- 

 pect them to grow up robust and health^', would be branded fool all 

 over. Yet how many cultivate their fields and put in their crops in 

 places colder and wetter than their c ellar, where not one ray of sun- 

 light or one particle of warmth ever reaches where the rootlets of 

 his plants ought to be, and then complains bitterly of the sterilitj- of 

 the soil and the continued frown of providence, ignoring the fact 

 that the Almighty helps those only who help themselves. 



Secondly, the farmer should remember that farming is his busi- 

 ness, and of all things the farmer should mind his own business. 



