56 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



such a wife, who, in nine cases out of ten, will best be found in 

 some good old farmer's family, I should expect to be denied the 

 privilege of much loud talk, not to say scolding, because the 

 bread was heavy, the butter rancid, and the meat and vegetables 

 but half-cooked. Give me such a wife, and I should not expect 

 very often to see the roof rise by a tornado. But I cannot 

 enlarge on tliis fruitful topic, and I hope I shall be pardoned 

 for the few hints I have given. Having spoken of what I would 

 not do, I will just say, in a word, what as a farmer, I would do. 



I would, in the first place, be an intelligent farmer ; I would 

 take one or two of the best newspapers within my reach, not 

 depending upon borrowing an old gazette once a month, and if 

 I lived within any decent distance of Palmer depot, I should be 

 sure to go in for Palmer Journal. I would, in the second place, 

 give my children, if I were so fortunate as to have any, as good 

 an education as my means would allow, contributing to the 

 support of a good school, the year in and the year out, instead 

 of adopting the miserable policy of letting them run half of the 

 year without instruction, and thus forget all they had learned 

 the other half. 



I would be a sober farmer. I would use no strong drink, nor 

 provide any for those in my employment, and I vi^ould take 

 especial care not to introduce into my family any of those scaly 

 fellows who would be likely to corrupt my children by their 

 pernicious example. 



I would be an honest farmer, and stand aloof from those 

 contemptible shifts and evasions, and prevarications and ma- 

 noeuvriiigs, to which multitudes resort to increase their ill- 

 gotten gains. Finally, I would be an independent farmer, and 

 instead of being everlastingly harassed witli debt, 1 would owe 

 no man any thing, but love and good will. So mote it be, with 

 all the farmers who now hear me. 



