LIL 



SUMMING UP. 



IN the foregoing essays, I have set forth, as clearly 

 as I could, the facts within my knowledge which 

 seem calculated to cast light upon the farmer's voca- 

 tion, and the principles or rules of action which they 

 have suggested to my mind. I have been careful 

 not to throw any false, delusive halo over this indis- 

 pensable calling, and by no means to induce the be- 

 lief that the farmer's lot is necessarily and uniformly 

 a happy one. I know that his is not the royal road 

 to rapid acquisition, and that few men are likely to 

 amass great wealth by quietly tilling the soil. I 

 know, moreover, that what passes for farming among 

 us is not so noble, so intellectual, so attractive, a pur- 

 suit as it might and should be that most farmers 

 might farm better and live to better purpose than 

 they do. Of all the false teaching, I most condemn 

 that which flatters farmers as though they were demi- 

 gods and their calling the grandest and the happiest 

 ever followed by mortals, when the hearer, unless 

 very green, must feel that the speaker does n't be- 

 lieve one word of all he utters ; for, if he did, he 

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