334 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



fessional and other walks of life ou account of their superior fitness. If boys 

 do not grow up on a farm with a taste for farm life, it must be because in some 

 unnecessary way it has been made repulsive to them. Of course, I would not 

 include here those boys who are born with a special taste and aptitude for some 

 other pursuit, and whom it would be the worst of tyranny and very bad policy 

 to attempt to confine ou the farm. If farmers do not occupy a high position 

 in the social scale, it is because they have set their mark low, and have not 

 worked up very well even to that. From this criticism, lest I might seem 

 unnecessarily harsh, I would except a large class in our new counties who are 

 pioneers as well as farmers, and who occupy the greater part of one genera- 

 tion in a stern struggle with poverty, in the effort to obtain a livelihood and 

 acquire a home. 



But right here we take the position that there is no nobler vocation in which 

 man can engage than farming. The products of the farmer are of prime 

 necessity in the markets of the world, and rarely does he fail to turn them 

 easily and promptly into ready money. All other occupations look to him for 

 support, and when the crops fail they are the first to be pinched by famine. 

 No other business comprises such a variety of operations or brings a man more 

 closely in communion with the hidden forces of nature. All the various 

 families of domestic animals are his associates and servants, and in the care 

 and management of these he has opportunities for cultivating a breadth and 

 generosity of soul scarcely to be found in any other pursuit. His daily work 

 brings him into intimate acquaintance with the visible forms of nature in tree, 

 flower, and fruit, and the various plants on which mankind depend for their 

 daily bread ; beast, bird, and insect, yea, the very elements, become by turns 

 his friends or foes, as they may chance to aid or interfere with the accomplish- 

 ments of his plans. No cramped position constrains his body till it becomes 

 deformed; no monotonous movement compels him to cultivate one set of 

 muscles at the expense of others. His lungs are strangers to the stilling air of 

 factories, and the roar and rattle of countless wheels cannot disturb his ear or 

 confuse his brain; but his work-shop is "all out-doors," and he breathes the 

 free air of heaven. The robin and chanticleer sing his matins, and the whip- 

 poor-will his vesper hymn. Rarely does his work extend into the night; as a 

 rule bis evenings are his ov/n for reading and self-culture ; and especially in 

 the Avinter season he has unequaled opportunities for mental improvement. He 

 is also, as a general thing, his own master, and when he chooses to take a day 

 for recreation it is nobody's business but his own. And last, not least, in the 

 quiet and comparative retirement of rural scenes he is, to a great extent, free 

 from those temptations to vice and dissipation which constantly beset the 

 inhabitants of cities and larger villages. 



In vievv of all these considerations, I venture to claim that there is no other 

 calling under the sun that offers better facilities for the symmetrical develop- 

 ment of the whole man, morally, mentally, and physically, than farming. 

 And farther, that in point of political influence, social standing, taste, culture, 

 and refinement, the farmer's position may be whatever he shall choose to 

 make it. 



Now, I maintain, that in order to elevate your calling in public estimation 

 you must take a manly pride in it. To make others respect it, you must 

 respect it yourself. As the French say, you should cultivate an "esprit du 

 corps." Associate yourselves as brother farmers, organize into clubs, discuss 

 and adopt the best plans to advance the interests of tlie whole body and push 

 •them with all the strength that lies in union, to successful execution. 



