82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



the contemplation of his best acres, he- will be pretty apt to find 

 their value discounted by the presence of worthless material. Of 

 his most valuable productions he finds that the value is limited to 

 a portion, and sometimes a small portion, while the large remain- 

 der is, or seems, worthless. Meantime, growths which possess no 

 value whatever, strive with a vigilance which never ceases and a 

 perseverance which never wearies, to rob his crops of the fertility 

 lodged in his soil, and of the kindly influences of the sunshine and 

 the rain. The implements he uses, through wear and exposure, 

 are constantly and rapidly losing value and becoming worthless. 



And as to his living machines, for such may all his domestic 

 animals be considered, for them time is doing the same work that 

 wear and exposure do for the others. After maturity, time runs 

 away with value very rapidly, and the old horse, ox, or cow is 

 always traveling towards the point of apparent worthlessness. 



I said the farmer might think his case exceptional in the extent 

 to which worthless things surround him, and crowd in upon him, 

 and obstruct his path, and cause him trouble and worry; but I 

 have to confess to an underlying conviction that if he so thinks, he 

 is, after all, mistaken, and that the truth is rather that all vocations 

 are beset with the same or similar difficulties, and all lives are 

 attended with the same unwelcome presences. We must remember 

 that we see distinctly and realize vividly the difficulties in our own 

 paths, and the trouble in our own lives, while the obstacles which 

 lie in the way of our neighbor, and the troubles with which he has 

 to do battle, make but slight impression upon us. 1 presume there 

 are those who regard the farmer's life as a peaceful idyl, free from 

 care, and with only so much of labor in it as is needful for exercise 

 and good digestion. They picture his situation much as Milton 

 did that of our first parents in the garden of Eden, with little to do 

 but to reach out their hands and gather the bounty which lavish 

 nature, with a hint or two in the way of preparation and seeding 

 and culture, makes ready for their use. We smile at such a 

 picture, but we are liable to fall into a similar error in Judging of 

 work with which we are wholly unfamiliar, and lives of which we 

 see only the outside. It may be that our estimates of the ease 

 with which success is won in other vocations, are in some cases 

 wide of the mark. 



So while my subject has its application to the farmer's business, 

 and is pertinent in a farmers' meeting, its application and perti- 



