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literature their great men ; among them their Cato, and their greatest 

 orator Cicero should be mentioned. Cato gave particular and wise 

 instructions in relation to farming. In the words of Cicero we get 

 an idea of the high estimation in which farming was held. He was 

 an enthusiast in relation to this industry* A few words from him 

 will be interesting. He says : " I come now to the pleasures of hus- 

 bandry, in which I vastly delight. They " — the pleasures — " are not 

 interrupted by old age, and they seem to me to be pursuits in which 

 a wise man's life may be spent. The earth does not rebel against 

 authority ; it never gives back but with usury what it receives." Now t 

 he touches a point which I conceive to be vital to the happiness of 

 the farmer. He continues : " The grains of husbandly are not what 

 exclusively commends it. I am charmed with the nature and pro- 

 ductive virtues of the soil. Can those old men be unhappy who de- 

 light in the cultivation of the soil ? In my opinion there can be no 

 happier life, not only because the tillage of the earth is satisfactory 

 to all, but from the pleasure it yields. The whole establishment of 

 a good and assiduous husbandman is stored with wealth ; it abounds 

 in pigs, in kids, in lambs, in poultry, in milk, in cheese, in honey. 

 Nothing can be more profitable, nothing more beautiful than a well 

 cultivated farm." 



Thus, in the simplicity of his greatness, spake Rome's most illus- 

 tious Patrician. He is evidently speaking from his" heart as well as 

 intellect. He immerses the burden of farming in the pleasure 

 thereof. There is no mode of living, no work, either manual or in- 

 tellectual, without its burdens ; and there is no employment, the bur- 

 den of which may be sunk out of sight in the pleasure ; and I truly 

 think there is no employment where this may be done with greater 

 gusto than in farming. The farmer who is one from choice and love, 

 is a realistic poet, putting that into material form and shape which 

 the poet puts into words ; and if " the poet learns in suffering what 

 he teaches in song," then what should the farmer expect to find 

 otherwise ? And from how much suffering and drudgery will this 

 pleasure in farming deliver the one who turns the furrow, and cares 

 for the animals committed to his care. 



But this is not the point I was intending to make in thus refer- 

 ring to the Greeks and Romans. This is historic fact ; in the end, 

 the famous Grecian phalanx fell before the Roman legion. It was 

 the farmers who carried her eagles in triumph over the world. Her 

 sinews of strength were her farm population. The government 

 seemed to understand this ; for she made her every citizen a land 



