HOW FAKMING PAYS. 49 



in a perfunctory manner, and have failed to do their duty as 

 men and citizens. 



That was not the method of our f ithers, — they looked upon 

 their profession with pride and pleasure, considered agricult- 

 ure an art to be associated with and assisted by intelligent 

 inquiry, — made the best of parents and citizens, and found, 

 between the well-systematized labors of their life, intervals 

 of leisure for general reading and improvement, and in that 

 way made farming pay . 



An Hibernian minister once alluded to death as an excel- 

 lent institution, — an institution but for which the world would 

 soon get so over-peopled that millions would die of starva- 

 tion ! Farming is of equal autiquity aud of superior excel- 

 lence, in our estimation, as it supports the millions, and if 

 practised as it should be, will allow no one to die for want of 

 subsistence. The farmers comprise a very large majority of 

 the population of this country, — their suffrages decide the 

 character of our rulers, — their arms defeat foreign foes and 

 establish the blessings of a permanent government. And 

 the young men who are turning their eyes away from the 

 cherished associations of their lives, had better think twice 

 before turning their back upon the old homestead, their birth- 

 spot, and the family altar, and consider whether, taking all 

 things into consideration, any other business will, in the long 

 run, pay better than intelligent farming. 

 7* 



