124 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



Mr. Gold did, to tell how glad I am to hear this lecture. I 

 wish Mrs. Kirkham had been here to hear it, but I couldn't 

 prevail upon her to leave. A great many things, it seemed, 

 needed attention and I couldn't induce her to come. That is 

 the way with a great many of the ladies, I presume. The 

 gentleman who spoke last night confided in me a certain fact 

 wdiich has been illustrated here by the speaker. He has been 

 through a very active campaign, we all know, and is one of our 

 Congressmen from this State. Being well acquainted with 

 him, I asked him about his health. " Well," he says, " I have 

 had a hard time since the campaign closed. I thought I shovild 

 just sit down and get rested, but there was something the mat- 

 ter with my heel, and I went to see a doctor. He told me what 

 I had done exactly. ' You have used that heel more than any 

 other part of your body.' I used to speak every day and every 

 night, and I had a habit when I was speaking of stepping back 

 on my heel and putting the whole weight on that heel, and now 

 I have been laid up and ought not to be here tonight." That is 

 the way he spoke. " But," he said, " I'm getting better of it 

 now, and I'm going to take a rest." 



I am old enough to know better, but I got onto my heel a 

 month ago, and I took off my stocking and saw a black streak 

 clear around from the instep to the other side — the blood had 

 settled there. I knew what caused it, and I let up. Well, I 

 remember when I was a young man hearing a farmer talk one 

 Sunday noon — the time the farmers get together in the horse- 

 sheds. He said the Swedes were their help. He said : " You 

 never hear of a Swede complaining of chronic disorders ; they 

 know how to handle themselves in hard work. They stand 

 straight up when pitching oats, rye, or hay ; they stand right 

 up with the whole strength of the body over the center of 

 gravity." He had studied the matter himself, but farmers 

 don't have time to do it as a rule — I don't. 



Then when the lady was talking about the planning of the 

 house, I suppose every one here thought about the back part 



