NEW ENGLAND FARMING. 45 



any business, farming included, can be conducted, the better ; 

 p^-ovided only the capital is in proportion to the business 

 done ; and when we say that nine-tenths of our farmers are 

 farming too large a surface, we only mean that they are 

 attempting more than they have, or luill use, the capital to do 

 thoroughly and well. 



Farmers of Massachusetts ! I ask you to bear in mind that it 

 is not your only end in life, still speaking agriculturally, to 

 secure a comfortable and honored livelihood from one year's 

 end to another, as the seasons gather themselves in succession 

 to the mighty harvest of the past, as the little faces around 

 your firesides are putting on the soberer guise of moi'e thought- 

 ful years, as the frosts of an autumn to which there is no 

 springtime of renewing verdure, begin to whiten upon your 

 temples. I ask you that it should be your aim to secure that 

 livelihood in such a way as shall add to the dignity and solid 

 attractiveness of your pursuit for those who are just coming 

 on to the stage, and whose selection of the parts to which their 

 lives shall be devoted, will be so greatly influenced by the 

 results of your lives and the teachings of your example. I ask 

 you to take your part in the farther improvement of the farming 

 of the State, not alone in your own interest and in that of the 

 community in which you live, but for the sake of the genera- 

 tion whicii is to follow in your footsteps. It is not that I would 

 urge you to any mingling of high-sounding words or theories, 

 but yet imperfectly understood, in the round of your daily 

 labors. It is not that I would present the picture that might 

 be drawn, of a wooing and gentle and loving Nature, to none 

 so dear, by none so freely and proudly enjoyed, as by him who 

 sits amidst his own well won acres, under the roof that sheltered 

 his fathers. It is not that I would remind you of the close 

 alliance between your occupation, with its many requisites, and 

 a thorougli study of all those' physical sciences which link them- 

 selves so closely with the culture of the soil, nor of the fact, 

 that the higher the culture of the mind, the greater may be the 

 pleasure derived from investigating the problems and winning 

 the victories of the farm. But I would meet you among the 

 implements, the animals, the fruits, the household articles, that 

 are assembled on such an occasion as this, directly from your ■ 

 homes and fields, on the practical ground of farming, not as 



