FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 203 



triictive, loaves a foi-timo to others which lie cannot carry away witli liim. He 

 works at lioinc, and lielps society at hirgo with more of certainty than he who 

 devotes himself to the giving of alms. And all this he does hy his daily labor 

 in the field, investing it in his land, making lal)or h()noral)le, stimulating, and 

 attractive, l^y these shall he be remembered. In our Western forest-homes 

 he is more than a benefactor; he is a hero — a man of great moral and physical 

 courage. ^Michigan and Ohio were largely settled, and are to-day largely set- 

 tled by a class of men known as small farmers, and who with fifty, or a hun- 

 dred, or two hundred dollars, took up of tlie public domain 40, or 80, or IGO 

 acres of wild land. These young men, with true western pluck and vim, took 

 their equally heroic wives with them into the very heart of the forest, with 

 little or no money, without friends to aid them, and many miles remote from 

 human habitation ; and there in hardships, toils, and privations, planted new 

 homes, and made them the outposts of advancing civilization. Others came, 

 and soon roads were cut out and made passable, the land was cleared and cul- 

 tivated, school-houses and churches were built, in which their children were 

 taught the lessons of morality and religion, of virtue, and patriotism. With- 

 out these heroic self-sacrifices, much of the poetry of our homes and civiliza- 

 tion would be wanting. These men and women taught us the truthful lesson, 

 that "a man is fed, not that he may he fed, hut that he may work." The field 

 was at once his floor, his work-yard, his play-ground, his garden, and his bed. 

 There he laid broad and deep the foundations of that patriotism and love of 

 home that made our farmer boys invincible in arms. Their courage and en- 

 durance in three great wars, brought-us peace, and covered them and their 

 country with imperishable glory. 



The farmer has called to his aid the assistance of education, and all the in- 

 ventions and improvements in agricultural implements within the last half cen- 

 tury ; and the agricultural colleges of this and other States have added largely 

 to the store-house of his knowledge. With his increased facilities for profitable 

 labor he has largely increased the amount of his productions. His demand 

 for all that aids him in his work, has spurred genius, science, and art in their 

 various departments to meet his necessities. His demand for safe, rapid, and 

 cheap transportation of his abundant crops, has been answered by giving him 

 steamships and railroads. Idle capital has threaded the country with roads of 

 steel for his convenience, equipped them with the motive power of steam, and 

 sends the iron horse with his eye of fire dashing from the center of civiliza- 

 tion, through city and town, over valley, through mountain, leaping rivers and 

 ravines, onward to the very door of the remotest habitation, and from tiience 

 carrying back to the seaboard tlie crops, the bread and meat with which to 

 feed the hungry of New York, and New England, and Europe. The puff of 

 the steam engine tells of its power, and is dragging at its back all of ]\Iichigau, 

 Wisconsin, and Illinois. It is proving the truth declared by Stephenson, that 

 a half ounce of coal will draw two tons a mile, and coal carries coal to the 

 farmer on the prairie, by rail and boat, as well as the farmer's products, so 

 safely, so rapidly, and so cheaply, that every energy of the farmer is intensi- 

 fied tiiereby. He broadens his fields, and daily increases the volume of his 

 •crops, rendering necessary additional manual help, and affording employment 

 to those who are willing to work. He serves them, and they serve him. But 

 the puff of the engine also tells of the power of the farmer, as well as of its 

 own. The capital invested in these roads answers only because the farmer de- 

 mands it, and makes it profitable for them ; and by them the way of civiliza- 



