SuLLivAiT County Farming. 193 



has sprung the idea alluded to, should be blotted out from our 

 vocabulary, for it has no meaning. I do not know how it got 

 there or whv it remains there, unless it is a device of the devil 

 to lead us astray, as it certainly does. God never created any- 

 thing that diminishes in bulk or deteriorates in value and ever 

 serves a wise and beneficent purpose, whether we realize it or 

 not. He who, metaphorically speaking, holds the waters of the 

 great deep in the hollow of His hand and has numbered the sands 

 upon its shore, will never allow one drop of the former to evapor- 

 ate or one of the latter to decrease in number, and when we shall 

 cease to march with the tramp of time and one by one fall out of 

 line, our bodies will be utilized for some good purpose. 



Good cheer and mutual sympathy should prevail in the home 

 of every family, for the inner life devoid of these essentials to 

 true happiness is no shelter from a tempestuous world of dis- 

 appointment and trial. The home of the farmer, more than any 

 other, can be made to partake of these elements, and if 

 they had been fostered to the extent permissible under 

 the circumstances, I surmise that families would have 

 been more united in their efforts to retain the homes 

 of their fathers. But gradually a distaste for their avocation has 

 manifested itself among some of their descendants who have 

 sought the first opportunity to free themselves from it, and thus 

 deprived of the services of those who are, or should be, interested 

 in maintaining the home, parents are left alone in their declining 

 years to fight life's battle alone; or, if help must be had, to seek 

 it outside of the family. It is wisdom to retain the farm as long 

 as practicable and as much as possible the children upon them, 

 and thus hand them down from generation to generation to the 

 end that they may be happy and prosperous by being engaged in 

 the noblest of all occupations — that of tilling the soil. 



Better than a marble shaft to perpetuate our memory is a busy 

 and useful life, where creations link the past with the future, for 

 he who by untiring industry helps to feed and clothe his fellow- 

 man is doing more to lay deep and broad the foundation for com- 



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