10 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



was too late to retrieve tlieir steps. Perhaps they did not 

 really think that the corn would grow without planting ; or 

 that the cows would come up into the parlor, and ask to be 

 milked ; or that the hens would lay three eggs a day in the 

 dairymaid's lap : but then they had no adequate concep- 

 tions of the skill required, and the labor to be performed, 

 in order to force from the reluctant soil the richest treasures, 

 and to wring from apparent defeat the assured success for 

 which they have toiled. 



The successful farmer, then, is one that brings to his call- 

 ing an ardent love for the same, and the most just conception 

 of its nature and its duties. And he must also possess 

 a sound, healthy physical system : we regard tliis qualifica- 

 tion as indispensable. While we freely admit that the in- 

 valid may regain his health b}'' gentle, moderate exercise 

 among the healthful scenes of farm-life ; and that the imbecile 

 may not starve on the farm so long as his inherited acres 

 remain to him ; and that the gentleman farmer may do much 

 to improve his lands and his stock, as well as for the devel- 

 opment of new methods of culture, in which all his brethren 

 may share, without putting his own hands to the plough or 

 the hoe ; and that it shows both goodness of heart and wis- 

 dom of mind, when the aged and the infirm retire among 

 the scenes and the associations of their youth to spend the 

 evening of their days in peace and the happy reflections 

 that come from a well-spent life : still we must insist that 

 the man who must expose himself to the elements, and brave 

 the storms of winter, and bear the heat of summer ; the man 

 who must guide his plough with his own hands, and pitch 

 his new-mown hay over the great beams without a patent 

 fork ; the man who must build his own walls, and ditch liis 

 own meadows, — will need to have a strong, healthy body, 

 well developed, well trained, and under perfect control. He 

 needs, and must have, a physical system that does not need 

 any of your bitter drugs to give a relish for its food, or 

 a cathartic to work it off, or powerful opiates to bring sleep to 

 his eyelids. The successful farmer not only needs a healthy, 

 vigorous body, but a sound, well-balanced mind, with the 

 broadest culture. Away, forever away, with the notion that 

 any ignoramus will do well enough for a farmer, or that 

 farming is to be prosecuted simply by main strength and 



