THE FARMER. 77 



THE FARMER 



From an Address before the Norfolk Agricultural Society. 



BY GEORGE PUTNAM. 



Having too early in life exchanged the blue frock for one of 

 another color, I do not consider myself, and nobody else will 

 consider me competent to give valuable instruction on the 

 science or the practice of agriculture. I will not attempt it. 

 But though I know little about farming, in its latest and best 

 methods, I think I do know a good deal about the farmer. 

 Therefore I will not speak of tillage, but of the tiller ; not of 

 cattle and swine, but their owner ; not of land, but the land's 

 lord. We will inquire, not how a man does or should cultivate 

 his fields, but how his fields do and should cultivate him. For 

 it is the case, in any business, that while the man makes the 

 business what it is, the business in turn makes the man, in a 

 great degree, what he is. He directs and moulds that visibly, 

 and that invisibly, but as truly, directs and moulds him. He 

 puts the mark of his mind and character upon that, and that 

 puts its mark upon his mind and character. The influences 

 are reciprocal. Action and reaction are equal. 



Farmers are of two classes. The two classes run into each 

 other at the edges, yet are quite distinguishable. 



One of the classes consists of persons, not originally, or not 

 exclusively agricultural. They come from other walks of life, 

 from the manufactory, from the counting-house, from the sea, 

 from the professions. Perhaps they have prospered sufficiently, 

 and now only wish to enjoy their gains. Perhaps they have got 

 disgusted with some of the ways of that more excited and 

 adventurous world in which they have been moving, and want 

 to breathe a purer air, and live what seems to them a truer life. 

 Or they are fatigued, and want rest from perplexity and strife. 

 Or they are drawn to the farm by their childish associations 



