Creator intended. Notwithstanding all this, the question still recurs, 

 and may be variously answered. The very ease and contentment 

 of condition in the farmer, is one probable cause of his inactivity in 

 improvement. The quietude of his avocations prevents that constant 

 attrition of mind inseparable from the bustling activity of most other 

 pursuits ; and the certainty with which the soil yields its annual 

 tribute to his labor, dispels that spirit of investigation common to 

 classes the result of whose labors is contingent or uncertain. Nor 

 yet is the farmer an ignorant, or a slothful man. In the great re- 

 sponsibilities of life in domestic duty in love of country in the 

 orderly support of the institutions of the land in stern watchfulness 

 over the acts of those he has placed in authority, and in that exalted 

 patriotism which is ever ready for the heaviest sacrifice to the benefit 

 of 'his race, he, as a class stands without a rival. And yet, possessed 

 of all these qualities, and enjoying all these advantages, the absence 

 of the spirit of association, leaves him in effect the least benefitted at 

 the hands of those he elects to govern him, of all others. 



Who invents, improves, and perfects the plow, and all the nameless 

 implements which alleviate his toil and accelerate his labor 1 Who 

 analyzes his soils, instructs him in their various qualities, and teaches 

 him how to mix and manure them for the most profitable cultivation? 

 The mechanic the chemist. Who, ascertaining that his seeds are 

 imperfect and unprofitable, searches foreign lands for new or better 

 ones, and introduces them to his notice 1 The commercial adventu- 

 rer, or the travelled man of enquiry and observation. Who, on 

 comparing the inferior domestic animals which he propagates, and in 

 whose growth and fattening he loses half his toil and the food they 

 consume, sends abroad, regardless of expense, and introduces the 

 best breeds of horses, cattle, sheep and swine for his benefit ? In 

 nine cases out of ten these labors and benefactions and their name 



