SUMMING UP. 321 



noble calling, they would live longer, live to better 

 purpose, and bequeath a better example, with more 

 property, to their children. 



My self-imposed task i^done. I undertook to tell 

 What I Know of Farming through one brief essay for 

 each week in 1870 ; and, in the face of multifarious 

 and pressing duties, and in despite of a severe, pro- 

 tracted illness, the work has been prosecuted to 

 completion. Had I not kept ahead of it while in 

 health, there were weeks when I must have left it 

 unaccomplished, as I was too ill to write or even 

 stand. 



I close with the avowal of my joyful trust that these 

 essays, slight and imperfect as they are, will incite 

 thousands of young farmers to feel a loftier pride in 

 their calling and take a livelier interest in its improve- 

 ment, and that many will be induced by them to read 

 abler and better works on Agriculture and the 

 sciences which minister to its efficiency and impel its 

 progress toward a perfection which few as yet have 

 even faintly foreseen. 



