9 



A man 1 * a man for a" that ; 

 For a 1 that, and a' that, 

 Their tinsel show, and a' that. 

 The honest man, though eVr sae puir. 

 Is king of mpn for a 1 that." 1 



The roan who overcomes ascends the throne. So you will find 

 where there are the most difficulties to overcome, and they are over- 

 come, there you will find the best and the wisest farmers. This in- 

 deed is not always the case, because there are but few who have the 

 lusty will to grapple with these difficulties. You may find the most 

 productive farms where you have only to scratch superficially the 

 bosom of Mother Earth, in order to get a good crop ; but not as a 

 rule the best farmers. New England farmers can yet teach those of 

 the West and South. Much does the whole country owe to the fact 

 that New England was settled first, or, I should say, that the first 

 successful settlement was made on the shores of New England. Our 

 Puritan fathers had to contend with most fearful odds, with enemies 

 of eveiy description ; the rigors of an inhospitable climate, where 

 the country was snow clad for three mooths in the year, and streams 

 of water and lakes frozen solid when there were no markets for ice ; 

 mountains of rocks when there were no markets for marble and 

 granites, and when the cereal crops had to be hoed in because the 

 plough could not be used : and in order to give the sheep a chance, 

 it is said that they had to be held up by the hind legs, dropping their 

 heads down among the rocks, thus enabling them to get a bite. 

 They had to contend with sand plains, with gigantic forests stretch- 

 ing away unbroken to the west, where the axe of the woodman had 

 never been heard, and where wild beasts and savages had roamed 

 for centuries undisturbed. We can hardly imagine anything more 

 forbidding, or circumstances where there was so little ground for 

 hope, or where the most discerning could predict only a future of 

 failure and ruin. What dauntless courage those circumstances de- 

 manded! what heroism! what will! what faith ! what muscle ! what 

 grit ! what indomitable pluck ! Among them there were no faint 

 hearts. They commanded the situation. Their grit was harder than 

 the rocks; their pluck mightier than the giants of the forests. 

 Openings were made in the boundless wilderness. Green fields ap- 

 peared. Farms smiled in the midst of the wilderness. Corn rustled 

 in the valleys. WTieat waved on the hillsides. Herds of cattle lowed 

 in the pastures, and the milkmaid's song was heard in the gloaming. 

 Prosperity came. Man's will was then, as now, mightier than the 

 forces of nature. In the midst of all there was culture, not only the 



