Mistakes of Farmers. 417 



feeling, no doubt, pertains to farmers,, many of wliom 

 esteem their calling low in comparison with other pursuits 

 — and yet what occupation can be more honorable or use- 

 ful ? 



Why, the first man God made was a farmer, and, had it not 

 been for his unwise desirti to go into some other business, 

 this world would have remained an Eden forever. 



Labor itself is not a curse. The Indian who defined 

 original sin to be "laziness" was not far wron')*. Laz- 

 iness is] a curse the whole world over, but well directed 

 labor never. It is always useful and honorable — now, as 

 well as in Eden. Yet how many seem to regard it as 

 degrading — especially farm work — and despise it. 



Itecently, in one of our cities, it is said, eighteen persons 

 answered an advertisement for work in a store and four 

 hundred for a gentleman to travel and play the banjo. 



The second mistake I wish to notice is — ^not seekins: and 

 obtaining a higher and better education. 



The day is passed when the old saying was current — any 

 fool will make a farmer. It is true — thanks to a beneficent 

 Providence — one may raise good crops who is not 

 acquainted with either Greek or Latin, and is quite ignor- 

 ant of the processes of nature whicli result in his growing 

 crops ; but the fact is equally true — the more knowledge, 

 research and brain one concentrates in his work, the more 

 successful and perfect will be the results of such labor. 



A machine may plant corn, but it is the brain tliat 

 developed the machine and guides its work. 



Farmers ought to be as well educated in the particular 

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