THE FARMER'S RELATIONS TO THE STATE. 43 



THE FARMER, AND HIS RELATIO:\"S TO 



THE STATE. 



From an Address before the Berkshii-e Agricultural Socictj'. 



BY SANBORN TENNET. 



What wonderful achievements and improvements in every 

 department of industry have the last hundred years witnessed ! 

 Time and memory would fail ns if we were to undertake 

 merely to mention them. It is enough for our present purpose 

 merely to mention the steamboat, the railroad, the telegraph, 

 the cotton-gin, the modern ploughs, the cultivators, the mow- 

 ing-machine, and the reaper. These, and such as these, 

 suggest the wonderful progress of the past ; and they should 

 inspire every one with the highest hopes for the future. 



And now is a fit time for the farmer, and for the mechanic, 

 to consider what are the next steps which they can take to 

 most advance their own interests, the interests of the com- 

 munity and of the State. 



Admitting, as we all do, the vast importance of the farmer's 

 profession, it behooves us to see to it that we not only sow 

 the best seed, and use the best fertilizers and the most 

 improved ploughs and other agricultural appliances, but that 

 we also keep the farmers' ranks full, and on the increase, of 

 the best blood in the nation. 



It will be a sad day for the community and for the State if 

 the time ever comes when the best young men and women 

 almost universally regard agriculture as an ignoble calling, or 

 one which has few or no attractions for them. 



We must see to it that we not only make agriculture a 

 profitable pursuit, but we must invest it with such attrac- 

 tions that the best young men and women will not wish 



