48 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



If a man love home, the serenity and peace tliat are found 

 only beneath our own roof-tree and on our own liearthstone, he 

 will cling to the farm. Domestic happiness finds there its most 

 (Congenial soil. Poets and painters have but expressed the 

 common convictions of mankind, when they have environed 

 their pictures of home with the objects and wreathed them 

 with the atmosphere of rural life. But of the general comfort 

 and happiness of rural pursuits, I need not say much in this 

 presence. There is a view of the matter, however, which has 

 always struck me with great force, but which I do not recollect 

 to have seen brought into distinct notice. It is the visible, 

 palpable result of agricultural labor. There is nothing so 

 requites toil as a visible, palpable result. Most men cast their 

 bread upon the waters, with the trembling hope that it may 

 return in many days. The farmer scatters his seed upon the 

 soil, sees the bow of promise which the hand of the Lord hath 

 bent above him, and lies down to rest assured that summer and 

 winter, seed-time and harvest, will not utterly fail upon the 

 earth. Every day's labor tells. The results of his toil greet 

 him morning and evening, as he goes to or returns from his 

 labor. That rough, unsightly bog-meadow, into which he 

 slumped so often when a boy, now smiles on him in beauty, 

 and rejoices with him beneath the weight of its luxtiriant crops. 

 That twig of a tree, which in a thoughtful moment he planted 

 with care, now shelters him from the noontide sun, or bends to 

 the earth with luscious fruit. Order succeeds confusion, the 

 waste places are redeemed, the rough places made smooth. 

 That neat, compact, comfortable dwelling, that well-arranged, 

 capacious barn, with cellar beneath, those solid stone walls, that 

 thrifty orchard, those fields of waving verdure, that sleek and 

 well-fed stock, how they rejoice the eyes and gladden the heart 

 and reward the skill and patient industry and energy of their 

 owner ! 



And the fruits of his toil are not only palpable but compara- 

 tively certain. The earth returns his devotion with even more 

 than woman's fidelity. Year after year she increases the 

 number of her gifts, demanding only in return vigilant care and 

 the refuse of the products he cannot use. 



But if a man has hopes and aspirations which do not cluster 

 about home, if he would move the world outside of his farm, 

 the farm, nevertheless, is a grand starting point. 



