FAllMER.S' INSTITUTES. ^Ul 



with liis work; wlietlier twenty, thirty, or sixty fokl, he cannot know, but it 

 makes his arm and heart strong for his work : the nohle work of creating and 

 ])rodncing- tiiat wiiich siiall feeil and clotlie the millions dependent njjon liis 

 skill and labor, llis faith and trnst never grow weak nor cold ; tliey bnrn as 

 brightly in his heart as the great fire on his hearth. In midwinter, when the 

 earth is solidly Ijound in icy chains, no distrust enters his heart for the safety 

 of the tender plant that had just peeped out of the earth, up, into the face of 

 the sun, when the snow came down to kiss and cover this dual child of nature 

 and man. He had read of the })romised harvest time to him who should sow; 

 and out through the storms of winter he sees the coining spring, when the sun 

 shall pour forth upon the earth, and she shall drink in his rays, dissolving the 

 icy robe, arul setting free the young plant to rejoice in the warm spring show- 

 ers, to glitter and sparkle with the dewdrop, to reach up in the summer, until 

 nature's slow work from rock and earth, and shower and sun, shall clothe the 

 Avhole field with the golden hue of the ripened crop. This is the farmer's 

 faith, and he is never disappointed. The farmer is the representative of true 

 political economy. He has acquired his knowledge of it without the assistance 

 of Kicardo, Adam Smith, Sir Kobert Peel, or other authorities on this subject. 

 He has followed the logic of common sense: 



First, "That he who would thrive must himself hold the plow or drive." 



Second, To do all things well, and to do them at the right time; and never 

 to trust others to do that which he can do himself, and to be rigidly exact iu 

 the supervision of that which is done by others. 



Ikird, That he is the rich man, in the true sense, whose outlay is less than 

 his income, and is steadily kept so. 



Fourth, That the wealth of a man is not to be measured by his large income 

 and large expenditure, but by the rule that his expenditures are less than his 

 income. 



Fifth, That he who buys what he does not want will soon want what he can- 

 not buy. 



Every dollar he earns is the result of constant hard work. It is the farmer's 

 dollar. It represents so much of frost and sunshine, of bone and muscle; so 

 much of toil and sweat. He has drawn on himself and nature for it, and the 

 draft has been honored. His bushel of corn and wheat, his ton weight of beef, 

 and his hundred pounds of wool are as good measures of value as any possessed 

 by the world. Better than any artificial standard that lengthens or shortens at 

 the command of brokers or bank directors. These commodities are his, and 

 the world's wealth ; he has produced them by the hard labor of brain and arm, 

 honestly earned, without speculation, fraud or trickery. They are commodities 

 of intrinsic value, that feed and clothe the hungry ami the naked. lie knows 

 their value and how to appreciate them. 



Dr. Johnson said that "men are seldom more innocently employed than 

 when they are making money." The farmer has found out the truth of this 

 statement. Money to use for every beneficent and wise purpose, either public 

 or private, within the rule already stated. 



This truth excludes indolence from the farm ; the successful cultivation of 

 the land will not tolerate it. A drone can have no place with the successful 

 farmer. The canker-worm of indolence is short-lived on the farm. It may 

 curse and blast the pros})ects of capital invested in other trades, but the earth 

 rejects the lazy and indolent from her bosom, as unworthy of her love and care ; 

 and in a short time some busy worker takes from the indolent the land he was 

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