202 STATE BOAIID OF AGRICT'T/n'RE. 



not worthy to possess. In luitiire's groat workshop the rule is inflexible that 

 he who would eat honey must — like the honey bee — constantly work and gather 

 the sweets from which it is made. 



The fanner is kind and hospitable; his entertainments, his liljerties, his 

 pleasures and his expenditures are on the farmer's scale, and not on the mer- 

 chant's or the banker's ; hut his hospitality ever leaves the string out of the latch 

 to the door on the outside ; he welcomes and entertains bountifully the needy. 

 Without ostentation or display he gives without stint of his abundance to the 

 needy, and particularly to those in our new settlements; and he neitlier asks 

 for nor receives a puff in the newspapers for it. He goes on errands of mercy 

 and love, and with his charities makes glad, in the name of his Divine Master, 

 the poor and sorrowing, " and his left hand knoweth not what his right hand 

 doeth." But in his sturdy faith he hears the voice that said " Inasmuch as ye 

 hare done it unto the least of these, ye have done it unto me." 



The farmer, above the rewards yielded by the harvests for his toil, has other 

 compensatory advantages growing out of his profession, lie is permanent, 

 clings to his land, makes it his home, adorns it, and fills it with plenty; makes 

 the land a part of himself, makes it a part of his children, welds his love and 

 their love to it. To them it becomes a sacred spot. The farmer intends it for 

 his boy, who will bear his name, and continue its occupation. For generations, 

 in the old and first-settled portion of our country, farms have remained in the 

 same families; and should the first settlers in 1G35 re-appear on the farms to- 

 day, they would find their own blood and names still in possession. The tenac- 

 ity with which the farmer clings to the land ho first settles is so general, 

 that even in this county and State the children and grandchildren of our first 

 settlers are still in possession of the paternal home. The sentiment that pro- 

 duces this result is a noble one ; in many instances inspired by the gentletiess 

 and patience of those who in suffering and hardship had planted these new 

 homes in the wilderness. 



The farmer has great trusts committed to his keeping. He stands at the 

 door of the bread room, and weighs out to each his loaf, and his pound of 

 beef, and has much to say of the quality and condition of the larder; and 

 early marriages largely dei)end upon the abundance of food in the market, and 

 the financial ability to procure it; for few will risk so important an alliance 

 where there is a prospect of the wolf of hunger crouching at the door. He is 

 the great conservator of joy and health in the household. 



IMic farmer is the representative and custodian of good health; lie imparts 

 its living ])o\ver and beauty to the cities. Cities are always recruited from the 

 country, the wasted body, the wearied intellect, and the weakened moral forces 

 arc renewed by the new blood brought from the farm. The men in cities of 

 all jirofessions and trades, who arc the centers of energy, tlie driving-wheels of 

 trades, of politics, and of the liberal i)rofessions ; and the women of beauty 

 and genius, are the children or grandchildren of farmers, and are spending 

 the energies which their father's hardy, silent lives accumulated in frosty fur- 

 rows, in poverty, necessity, and trial. The women need not be ashamed of it. 

 The rose of health upon their faces is far more precious and beautiful than 

 the jewels and diamonds with which they adorn themselves ! 



The farmer is the world's benefactor. He who clears up an acre of land, 

 digs a well, sets out a grove of trees, ])lants an orchard, builds a durable house 

 or barn, drains and reclaims a marsii, ])uts a seat by the road side, sows a 

 bushel of grass seed, plants a rose bush, makes the land so far lovely and at- 



