482 State Board of Agriculture, &c. 



River vallej, I will not pretend to say. But the tliouo'ht 

 he gives us is certainly worth treasui'ing and examining. 



It is possible, we must admit, for one to think so much 

 of the farm as to neglect the farmer ; and this, too, in the 

 face of the divine teaching, that " the life is more than meat 

 and the body is more than raiment." 



One may give too much of his mind to the meadow, 

 and, in ceasless attention to the soil, may defraud the soul. 



The higher mental and spiritual interests may be crowded 

 aside and badly deranged by an inconsiderate indulgence 

 of the lower interests. 



We have known men whose ambition, confessedly, 

 reached no higher than to get a crop oft their lands in the 

 easiest and quickest way. Themselves and their families 

 suffered accordingly. Little true thrift and comfort 

 appeared about them. 



Others we have known who added the study and appli- 

 cation of the most approved methods to their steady indus- 

 try, to make the farm pay. But tlieir thoughts and efforts 

 being all in one direction, or, at l)est, but slightly elevated 

 above their lal)or, they have carried about a very care- 

 worn, and, frequently, a very dissatisfied expression. 



Farmers, probably, in this, are not sinners above many 

 other classes. But our ])ajper has to do with farmers, and 

 that the fault attaches to some of them will hardly be dis- 

 puted. 



A great many are of a much higher type than this. In a 

 community like ours they constitute a very large majority. 

 And to such the thoughts here presented will only be in 



