2Q0 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



point to the exhilarating beauty of nature, tlie tranquility and innocence of a 

 country life, in contrast witii the sameness of the daily pursuits of city life ; 

 and the hideous visage of poverty and crime that mar the history of cities. 

 "God made the country, and man made the town." 



Wise and active men look to the farm as an asylum, a place of refuge in old 

 age, or in misfortune to hide his poverty, and from the kind earth to draw sus- 

 tenance both for body and mind ; or, if disappointed in the plans and ambi- 

 tions of life, or lost in the solitude of his own thoughts, a safe retreat in which 

 he may more readily commune with nature ; behold the grand mysteries of her 

 work in the earth, and forget himself in the charms she throws around him, 

 in field, and tree and llower, and in the jeweled firmament above him; or, as 

 an old poet has said : 



O, liow cans't thou renounce the boundless store 



Of charms which nature to her votary yields! 

 The warbling woodland, the surrounding shore, 



The pomp of gi-oves, and garniture of fields; 

 All that the genial ray of morning gilds, 



And all that echoes to the song of even, 

 All that the mountain's sheltering bosom shields, 



And all the dread magniticence of heaven, 

 O, how cans't thou renounce and hope to be forgiven! 



The man of the city, spoiled by its habits and its vices, and nearly wrecked 

 in fortune, at last turns to the farm, and with his children goes there to be re- 

 cruited and cured. She should have been his nursery; now she liecomes his 

 hospital ! 



Tlie office and calling of the farmer is precise, and important. He is the 

 minister to the laws of nature : he represents the necessities. We cannot speak 

 of him as we do of the town dandy. You cannot compliment his taste in his 

 toilet, nor in the tie nor color of his cravat, nor in his coat being of the latest 

 fashion in texture or style, nor in the smoothness of the fit of the glove to his 

 hand. No, in these things he cannot be complimented ; they are utterly be- 

 neath him; and tlierefore unbecoming. And if he should assume them, he 

 would lose the simplicity and grandeur of that nature which he represents. 

 His calling and his character arc too high and far above the city fop, to admit 

 of such folly. He is nature's minister ; and it is the beauty of the great econ- 

 omy of the world that gives him grace and beauty in all he does. He bends to 

 the order of the seasons, the weather, the soils, and the crops, as the sails of a 

 ship bend to the wind. He is the representative of continuous hartl labor, year 

 in, year ont. Intelligent, independent, manly, thinking labor, acting for itself, 

 earning its own M'agos. He is satisfied with small gains, knowing that his hcst 

 profits arc the improvetnents his constant toil aild^ to the value of his land. He 

 is timed to nature, he does not slop over with entliusiasm, he is slow and sure, 

 he takes the pace of seasons, crops, and chemistry. He knows that nature 

 never hurries; that atom by atom, little by little, she has achieved and is 

 achieving her work. Why should he hurry y He must be patient; he must 

 not travel faster than she who leads him, tmt he must travel and move as fast ; 

 he must time himself to nature, and acquire that live-long patience which be- 

 longs to her. He has the ]n'omise that the earth shall feed and clothe him; 

 and he must wait in hope for his crop to grow. He is a man of strong faith 

 and of great work, proving the one by the other. He ploughs and sows each 

 autumn the staple crop of our northern climate; he has done it in season, and 

 in good order; and while doing it the tliought of the harvest time is associated 



