AVERAGE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 231 



expenditures. If a man labors with his muscles alone, he 

 must not expect the earnings of trained intellectual faculties. 

 In the scale of varying labors and rewards, every man will be 

 paid according to the use he makes of those gifts and powers 

 with which he is endowed. If he has a clear judgment and a 

 sagacity that detects the subtle indications of supply and 

 demand, so as to forestall the tluctuatious of the markets ; if 

 he has a keen eye for animal anatomy and economy, and a 

 quick insight into the laws of breeding, all these several 

 capacities and talents will bring their legitimate return, if 

 employed on the farm. Since agriculture must be the basis 

 of all other prosperity, no success in any country is safe, if 

 agriculture is not itself prosperous. Perhaps no calling is so 

 broad, has room for so many varieties of men, as agriculture ; 

 not only in the obvious sense of furnishing work in unlimited 

 quantity, but also in its capability of furnishing every quality 



'of work. Our demand for unskilled labor absorbs countless 

 thousands of the workers of other lands. We have room for 

 them ; we have also room for every grade of work, from low 

 to high, from mere muscular toil to the original investigations 

 of science. 



But we must frankly admit, that the actual life of the aver- 

 age iarmer — even of the average New England ftu'mer — is far 

 from being the highest or noblest. Let us see it in its true 

 colors, denying none of its asperities. There is certainly very 

 much in it that is coarse, harsh and sordid. Who does not 

 recognize the constant grind which yet keeps a man poor all 

 his life.; the perpetual and degrading round of drudgery to 

 which so many farmers tie down their lives? What is the 



•range of thought of the average farmer? What is the lot in 

 life, the sources of pleasure and improvement, which fiill to 

 his wife? What chances does he put before his sous and 

 daughters ? 



To many, this will call up a dark picture ; but admitting 

 its blackest features, the question arises, Is the fault in the men 

 in the calling? Do not the most intelligent, the most enter- 

 prising and thoroughly educated farmers, bring their farming 

 up to their own level? Do not higher ambitions suggest 

 higher possibilities in their work? 



