LECTURES AND ESSAYS EEAD AT INSTITUTES. 323 



docility, domestic habits, the friend and companion of man, from his earliest 

 history to the present ; but time and space forbid, and we will pass to the best 

 breeds for the general farmer of Michigan. If the farmer is so located and 

 wishes to breed for mutton alone, the Cotswolds of Shropshire, or Southdowns, 

 may be the best; but when mutton and wool and the greatest amount of 

 money is sought after the American Merino is far in advance. Tliey seem to 

 be the sheep that combine more good qualities than any other breed. Their 

 hardiness, heavy fleece, fine quality of wool and fine fattening quality stamp 

 them preeminently the sheep for us. 



HOGS. 



That little beauty, and how mischievous and annoying at times, and yet so 

 little care. Give him a good, Avarm bed for winter protection, the slop from 

 the house, three ears of corn per day, good clover pasture with corn continued 

 .and. the range of your wheat stubble, and you have converted that little frisiiy 

 pig into 350 or 400 pounds of matured hog. One word as to the different 

 breeds. Give me the Poland China. 



In conclusion, brother farmers, enter into the very spirit of your chosen 

 calling, feed your farm, feed it liberally, feed everything you have on your 

 farm ; provide good, comfortable winter quarters for them ; attend all these 

 Institutes or farmers' gatherings, honor your calling and you will be an honor 

 to it. 



A FARMER'S LIFE. 



BY CHAKLES BAUEK. 

 [Read at Hastings Institute.] 



Enjoyment is what makes life desirable. It is because our joys and pleas- 

 ures overbalance our sorrows and pains, that we desire to live at all. The 

 person who enjoys most, makes the most of life. It is not fancied joys and 

 pleasures which we are speaking of, but real unalloyed gratifications of the 

 mind, joys which breed no sorrows, pleasures which leave no sting. We often 

 hear the pleasures of the world lightly spoken of as though they were of small 

 account, but what would the world be without them? They are the only 

 pleasures we have experienced, or have any knowledge of. Take from us the 

 pleasures and enjoyments, and you leave life a barren waste. It is our priv- 

 ilege and duty to seek the greatest possible amount of enjoyment ; therefore, 

 adaptation to give enjoyment is the criterion by which the different occupa- 

 tions in life should be compared and judged. In comparing a farmer's life 

 with other occupations, we prefer to consider them philosophically rather than 

 historically. "We prefer to consider their capabilities rather than their present 

 aspect. No one will contend that the life of the ordinary farmer is what it 

 ought to be. As farming was the first occupation of civilized man, it will 

 probably be the last to take the place which reason assigns it. Old habits, 

 prejudices, and superstitions are clogs on the wheels of progress, and probably 

 no occupation is more effected by them than that of farming. As farmers 

 have inherited their peculiarities of thought and manners of life through a 

 long line of ancestry, and as they constitute the great mass of the people, it is 



