278 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



Here as elsewhere wherever I go, I find an earnest 

 spirit pervading all the friends of agricultural improve- 

 ment, that speaks in cheering tones that our cause is in 

 the ascendant. 



To-morrow morning I shall again roll along toward 

 new scenes, some of which I hope will prove sufficiently 

 interesting to induce me again to communicate with you. 

 Till then, accept the good wishes of Solon Robinson. 



Letter from Solon Robinson. 

 to the Editor of the Farmers' Cabinet. 1 



[Philadelphia Farriers' Cabinet, and American Herd-Book, 6:92-93; 



Oct., 1841] 



[September 20, 1841] 

 After spending a week in and about your city, I can- 

 not bear to leave it without a parting word to the many 

 warm-hearted friends that I have found here. I am one 

 that holds that self-esteem is a virtue, for it is that 

 which makes us all proud of doing good. It is that which 

 makes me proud of the reception that I have met with 

 among a very large number of the agriculturists of this 

 vicinity. But it is not a kind of self-esteem that makes 

 me proud of the honour conferred upon me personally, 

 for I am a stranger, personally unknown, even by charac- 

 ter, except by my writings; but on account of the cause 

 that I advocate have I been most flatteringly received 

 wherever I have been. Oh, sir, the spirit of improve- 

 ment is abroad. That "band of brotherhood" that I long 

 to see cementing us all together, is forming. That joyful 

 day is coming, when all the agriculturists of the land will 

 feel as though they belonged to one family, and that their 

 occupation was, and of right ought to be, the most 

 honoured of all others. 



On Tuesday last, I paid a visit to several of the farms 

 upon the far-famed Brandywine hills of Westchester. If, 



1 James Pedder. See ante, 214 n. 



