THE VOCATION OF FARMING. 33 



veins and muscles and nerves, does not move many persons 

 as much as would the gift of a dollar. 



And so, if you will give me leave, I doubt whether we 

 truly appreciate this which I call the vocation of farming — 

 what it is, or what may be made of it. The first element of 

 it, or what commonly presents itself as the first, — labor, — is 

 a totally different thing from what many think it is. Instead 

 of being all evil and hardship, it is the greatest blessing in the 

 world. Absolute freedom from it, would be utter misery. 

 Hard, is it, to labor? But imagine the whole human race to 

 wake in the morning, and so for the successive mornings of a 

 month or a year, with nothing to do ! They would die of ennui, 

 or plunge into the madness of universal disorder. And hard 

 work is not found on farms alone. I hear traders, factory 

 operatives, mechanics, carpenters, blacksmiths, talking very 

 much as farmers do, about their tasks. They get very tired, 

 every day. It is so with all life. It costs much, because it 

 is meant to be worth much. 



Because it is meant to be worth much — that is the key- 

 thought which I wish to present to you, and to show how it 

 applies to agricultural pursuits. But let me first say a word 

 upon the attractiveness of this, as compared with other pur- 

 suits. Why should farming be thought less agreeable, less 

 interesting as a business, than manufacturing or trading? 

 For my own part, I think I had rather go out into the fields 

 and open air, to plough and plant, and to gather in the harvest 

 of wheat and corn and the orchard, than to spend my days 

 in the noisy factory or the counting-room and the warehouse. 

 The hay and harvest season is commonly accounted to be a 

 joyous time ; the vintage in Italy, the gayest of the year ; and 

 let me say, in passing, that our orchards give us a more valu- 

 able fruit than grapes, and a drink more agreeable and health- 

 ful than the common wine of Europe. If some extreme 

 temperance person here should call me in question for this 

 allusion, I would say that cider is not an intoxicating drink. 

 In my youthful days, it was got into our cellars, five, ten or 

 twenty barrels of it, and it was on tap to the wmole house ; 

 and I never heard of but one man, who was intoxicated by it ; 

 and his case Was so marked that he went among us by the 

 name of "Cider Johnson." 

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