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they must, if good farmers, attend to the daily routine of their affairs, 

 as well as we. They would diffuse intelligence among us; introduce 

 improved implements, seeds, and stock; and in time, surely exalt the 

 character of our husbandry. They might not, indeed, work at the 

 muck heap, nor guide the plow with their own hands; but they must 

 be capable, from education, to direct the labor of both; for we must 

 not forget that the merchant who, from his luxurious counting room ? 

 plans his voyages, and directs the course of his ships; or the engi- 

 neer who projects the rail-way, or the ocean steamer, once performed 

 the duties of a shop boy, or hammered at the anvil. And thus with 

 the farmer: he should be capable of directing the cultivation of the 

 soil to its greatest possible extent of production ; and he will find 

 that, in achieving such result, all the powers of his mind, and the 

 knowledge with which it is stored, will be required. 



This thought will bear a little examination. The farmer is apt to 

 think that the professional man, or the merchant, lives an easy and 

 luxurious life. In many instances their families may do so ; but 

 with the eminent and successful man of law, or science the artizan, 

 or merchant himself, such supposition is a great mistake. There are 

 not, under heaven, a more laborious class of men than these. Labor 

 of body, and of mind is theirs and that incessant. See them early, 

 late; in season, and out of season their whole energies devoted to 

 their several callings, without rest, or intermission and far too fre- 

 quently, to the premature wasting of life itself. It is no wonder that 

 such industry, directed by good education, (and by this term I mean 

 the entire training of the boy to manhood in its most extended sense,) 

 and stimulated by a laudable ambition, should lead to success. Yet 

 with all these appliances, the labors of such men are often disas- 

 trous ; and if not so, after a life of anxiety, their toils too frequnntly 

 end with but the means of a slender support. Compared with these, 



