RELATIONS OF AGRICULTURE TO MAX. 5 



culture. The most obvious distinction between the savage and 

 civilized man, is in the respective relations in which they 

 stand to the soil. The one has no fixed al)ode ; and as long as 

 he has none he makes no progress ; the other attaches himself 

 to a spot which he calls home. This he loves from the associa- 

 tions of the past ; it is the place where his fathers lived and 

 died and were buried, or which he has obtained by his own 

 toils. He values it too for the present ; it is the home of his 

 wife — it was the birthplace of his children — it is the most 

 loved spot of earth ; the stars sparkle brighter above it in the 

 distant spheres, the flowers are more beautiful and fragrant 

 from its soil, the rains are more grateful to its fields, and the 

 fruits sweeter to the taste. Around the house, the barn, the 

 trees, the hills, tlie running brooks, and the very rocks, pleas- 

 ant memories and holy affections cluster ; and he loves to adorn 

 and beautify and improve it. The very first steps of improve- 

 ment, therefore, for an individual or a tribe, is to cease wander- 

 ing and become rooted to the earth. As soon as a tribe fixes 

 itself with a determination to draw support from the soil, it 

 lays aside its tents and builds substantial dwellings ; and here 

 begins architecture, and the many arts needed in building — 

 the cutting of timber, the making of bricks, or the hewing of 

 stones — masonry, carpentry, painting, glass making, and the 

 countless branches of ir.dustry involved in furnishing and 

 beautifying a residence. 



Again, Ijcfore agriculture can progress far, the Inisbandman 

 must have tools, and to this end the mines must be worked, and 

 the founder and the smith be enlisted ; many trades called into 

 existence, and finally, as we see in our day, the highest mechan- 

 ical ingenuity be pressed into the service of the farmer. Com- 

 merce, in the progress of civilization, necessarily grows out of 

 agriculture. A farming community will produce more than 

 they need for consumption, and the surplus will be sent to less 

 favored localities, or to sections and countries whose soil and 

 climate do not admit of such p>roductions. Hence comes com- 

 merce, the first born child of agriculture, with tlie building of 

 ships for the rivers, lakes and oceans — the cutting of canals, 

 and the running of railways over valleys and through moun- 

 tains for transportation ; and then towns and cities spring up 

 full of warehouses, the product of the farm house. 



