Natural Laws. 467 



more influence in shaping public opinion, upon all impor- 

 tant questions, than a score of average farmers ; and that is not 

 wholly past. Intellectual superiority should be recognized 

 wherever we find it_, and it will ])e, whether we would have 

 it so or not, and, I am sorry to say, even if unconnected 

 with moral integrity. The question is not one of dollars 

 and cents alone, but of positions of honor and of worth. 

 Shall we plod on in the old way and surrender these, or 

 shall we fit ourselves to rise to the possession of them ? 



The time is not far distant when, like our bretliren in 

 England and Germany, we shall be obliged to bestow 

 more thought upon our business, or sink into hopeless pov- 

 erty, and oblige our posterity to emigrate to some otlier 

 naturally fertile field, to there repeat the vandalism of 

 their fathers. The rich prairies of tlie West are now being 

 thus depleted by those who have emigrated from New 

 England. When these new fields are exhausted and our 

 descendants compelled to make farming a mental, as well 

 as° a physical pursuit, then will agriculture, and the agricul- 

 turist, be elevated to their true positions. 



The model farmer possesses tliose active habits, that 

 practical turn of mind, that intuitive forecast of the future 

 state of the markets, that general intelligence, and strict 

 integrity, which, combined witli a scientific knowledge of 

 his calling, will always insure success. You will observe 

 that this implies a great deal, nothing less tliau that the 

 farmer should lie a well developed man. And what call- 

 ing tends more certainly and directly to a full, manly devel- 

 opment than that of the agriculturist, when properly pur- 

 sued ? 



