SECRETARY'S REPORT. 37 



with many farmers in all parts of the state, and unless those he met 

 were more active, intelligent and progressive than the average, he 

 deemed the picture too darkly drawn. 



Mr. Hammatt could not agree with the report ; he had known as 

 lazy lawyers and men of other professions. He repudiated the 

 idea that farmers could not have any of the luxuries of life without 

 ruining themselves. Live, active, intelligent farmers in Maine, can 

 secure for themselves and families the comforts and luxuries of life, 

 as easily as any other class of men. What are their fine horses and 

 carriages but luxuries, which few other professions can enjoy ? Can 

 the great body of mechanics do any such thing? 



Lumbermen have to work night and day to get a living. Farm- 

 ers can get a living with as little wear and tear as the merchant or 

 any other class. 



There is a growing interest in farming, and in all that pertains to 

 agriculture. Our farmers are anxious to come in competition with 

 others, and secure success above their fellows, and new attention is 

 secured to this business all over the state, and I cannot think it is 

 wise to report that farmers are inattentive or uninterested in their 

 business ; I hope the committee will modify their report. 



Mr. Davis said that in the portions of the state with which he 

 was acquainted, there was altogether a better feeling, and a higher 

 estimate of farming and of the value of farms than formerly. 



He could hardly assent to the report. 



Dr. True thought the chairman had not taken exactly the right 

 view of this matter. He might have said, with perfect truth, that 

 the majority of fiirmers do not work over two hundred days in a 

 year, and yet they live as well as any other class. Merchants have 

 to work early and late to get a living, while farmers are at a show 

 and spending, instead of earning money. 



Mr. Flint thought if farmers sought only the substantial good of 

 life, they could secure it with only so much labor as was necessary 

 to health. There is no need of delving with that intensity which 

 was needed in other employments. But when farmers undertook to 

 go into the fancies, and luxuries, and follies of artificial life, they 

 always found them a load they could not carry. 



Mr. Hammatt could not agree with the gentleman from Somerset, 



