FARMEKS' INSI'ITUTES. 159 



learned many of great value. AYe ask why, and nature has given many reasons 

 of practical worth. To the rising agriculturist belongs tlie duty of producing 

 causes which shall give required effects. 



There is perhaps no greater duty devolving upon the rising agriculturist than 

 that of perfecting our systems of agriculture. I think I should not be far out 

 cf the way should I assert tliat in our own town our farmers lose each year 

 from mismanagement alone more than enough to pay their taxes twice over. 

 How many farmers have a carefully constructed plat of their farm? How' 

 many ever make a practical estimate of the amount of stock required by their' 

 ■farm? How many believe the generally accepted truth that it pays better to' 

 raise a good animal, even at an increased expense, than it does to raise a pool'" 

 one? Few practice it, at least. How many of our farmers are one-half as 

 attentive to their business as are our professional men? How many farmers can 

 give an accurate account of their profits on any particular crop, or even on then- 

 entire business? Faults, faults, errors, and wanton ignorance I Young man, 

 why stand ye idle, why flee ye into the city, that repository of ill-health, vice, 

 and blasted hopes? Is it because you are ashamed to be a farmer? Cicero said 

 that agricultural pursuits are those in which a wise man's life should be spent. 

 Fathers, why do your sons leave the farm? Is it because you suffer ignorance 

 to be synonimous with agriculturist? I believe there is no greater reason. 

 Educate your sons in the cause you would have them sustain ; then shall they 

 be proud of their alliance with industrial pursuits. Should I never labor a sin- 

 gle day upon a farm, I should ever look upon the honest, intelligent farmer as 

 the noblest work of God. 



How often is the country youth asked by his city cousin if he intends to be a 

 farmer? See him swell lip to twice his original size and respond, "Xotif I 

 know myself ;" or he blushingly replies, "Yes, I am such an ignoramus that I 

 suppose I'll have to be a mossback." Better that the moss lie on his back a 

 foot thick than to have a stain of the rust of a street loafer or shop drone. I 

 would not be disrespectful, but there are respectable young men to-day in this 

 city leaning over their counters idling away precious time, contracting indolence 

 and ill-health, courting vice and bantering poverty, who at the age of forty will 

 be eking out a miserable servile life, while their country cousin who is to-day 

 working upon the farm at §10 to §15 per month, and carefully storing his mind 

 Avith useful information, shall then retire from hard labor and survey his well- 

 tilled acres with a satisfaction that yields true happiness. 



The educational future of our farmers next attracts my attention. It hag 

 long been the opinion of most people that a common school education is all that 

 is necessary for a farmer, and any farmer who has sought more than this has 

 been looked upon as though he were an object of pity rather than a being worthy 

 of commendation. Cultivated talents, good bargains, profitable speculations, 

 and paying offices have been conceded to be the lawful spoils of our professional 

 ranks. The results are that hosts of young men are yearly drifting into the 

 professions, and for every one who qualifies himself well for the position he is 

 to occupy, there are ten others who are neither more nor less than detestable 

 parasites upon societ}-, gaining a miserable livelihood by a scheming, dishonest, 

 reproachful filching from the stores of their poor, ignorant clients. These shad- 

 ows of wise men fill our cities, our legislative halls, and make our laws, and, 

 allowing me to be the judge, they often legislate quite unwisely. A man can 

 no longer make an honest will except some distant or dissipated relative becomes 

 the contemptible client of a twice contemptible lawyer, and with a sixfold con- 



