316 MY FARM. 



of hints and suggestions, those more salient topics 

 which would naturally suggest themselves to all who 

 may have a rural life in prospect, or who may to-day 

 be idling or planning, or toiling under the shadow of 

 their own trees. 



There are no grand rules by which we may lay 

 down the proportions of a life, or the wisdom of this 

 or that pursuit ; every man is linked to his world of 

 duties by capacities, opportunities, weaknesses, which 

 will more or less constrain his choice. And I am 

 slow to believe that a man who brings cultivation, 

 refinement, and even scientific attainment, may not 

 find fit office for all of them in country life, and so 

 dignify that great pursuit in which, by the necessity 

 of the case, the majority of the world must be always 

 engaged. He may contribute to redeem it from those 

 loose, immethodical, ignorant practices, which are, in 

 a large sense, due to the farmer s isolation, and to the 

 necessities of his condition. And although careful 

 investigation, study, and extended observation in 

 connection with husbandry, may fail of those pecu 

 niary rewards, which seem to be their due, yet 

 the cause in some measure ennobles the sacrifice. 

 The cultivated farmer is leading a regiment in the 

 great army whose foraging success is feeding the 

 world ; and if he put down within the sphere of his 

 influence riotous pillage wasteful excesses, and by 



