TEACH AS TO FARMING. 19 



almost any other class ; and it is very easy to allure many of 

 them away to shoot at other men's turkies when they should be 

 growing food for their own. But while many waste precious 

 hours, quite as much through heedlessness and want of system as 

 indolence, I know another class who slave themselves out of com- 

 fort and out of thought by incessant, excessive drudgery, who are 

 so absorbed in obtaining the means of living that they never find 

 time to live who drive through the day so that their bones ache 

 and their minds are foggy at night ; and are so overworked 

 through the week that they can neither worship God nor enjoy 

 the society of their families on the Sabbath. These men will 

 often tell you they have no time to read, which is just as rational 

 as for the captain of a steamship to plead a want of time to con 

 suit his compass and chart or keep a reckoning of his ship's pro- 

 gress. No time to read ! do they not find time to plant and sow, 

 to reap and mow, and r\vn t<> cat and sleep? If they do, then 

 they may find time, if they will, to learn how to apply their labor 

 to the best advantage as well as to qualify themselves by rest 

 and refreshment for working at all. I venture the assertion that 

 there are twenty thousand fanm-rs in Indiana who would have 

 been wealthier as well as more useful, more respected and happier 

 men this day, if they had abstracted ten hours per week from 

 labor during all their adult life, and devoted those hours to read- 

 ing and thought, in part with a view to improvement in their owa 

 vocation, but in part also looking to higher and nobler ends than 

 even this. Some men waste the better part of their lives in dis- 

 sipation and idleness ; but this does not excuse in others the waste 

 of time equally precious in mere animal effort to heap up goods 

 and comforts which we must leave behind so soon and for ever. 



V. I read very few old books ; I can hardly find time to 

 master the best new ones ; but I have no doubt that those who 

 do read the very oldest treatises on Agriculture which have sur- 

 vived the ravages of tii . will find Cato, or Seneca, or Columella, 

 or whoever may be the author in hand, talking to the farmers of 

 his day very much as our farmers are now generally talked to, 

 and inculcating substantially the same truths : " Plow deeper, fer- 

 tilize more thoroughly, cultivate less land, and cultivate it better ;" 



