ESSEX SOCIETY. 107 



strength, support, and column of our political society, and who 

 stand to the other orders of the State, in the same relation 

 which the shaft bears to the pillar — in respect of whom, all 

 other arts, trades and professions are but ornamental work — 

 the cornice, the frieze, and the Corinthian capital." Whatever 

 tends to stimulate and direct their industry, spreads prosperity 

 over their fields, or carries happiness to their homes, merits 

 careful consideration, for it strengthens the foundations of our 

 public renown. 



Generally speaking, we find few farmers, either practical or 

 fancy, who have a proper conception of their occupation. The 

 mysteries of husbandry are considered but as the lesson of a 

 day ; and every man, the moment he becomes the occupant of 

 a farm, is allowed to style himself a competent farmer. " Is 

 there nothing in Agriculture," said Columella the Roman, 

 " Avhich requires to be studied ? Is there nothing to reward 

 research? For myself, when I take an enlarged view of this 

 noblest of all pursuits, and survey it on all sides, and consider 

 what it embraces that it would be profitable to know, I fear I 

 shall see the end of my days before I shall become a thorough 

 master of all its mysteries." 



As it was in Rome, so it is in Massachusetts. We have our 

 public men, who like Cincinnatus, Dentatus and Regulus, re- 

 treat from the cares and toils of state to the pure and unalloyed 

 joys of agriculture and horticulture. Our poets and our histo- 

 rians, like Virgil, will leave behind them many a token of their 

 devotion to rural pursuits. And our Legislators, by repeated 

 grants of money, have shown their appreciation of Washing- 

 ton's declaration, that, " in no way can more real and impor- 

 tant services be rendered to a country, than by improving its 

 agriculture." All this flatters the amateur farmer, and encour- 

 ages the hard-working yeoman ; it elevates the common calling 

 of each in the social scale ; but it does not make either " a 

 thorough master of all its mysteries." 



And what is the lot of a young man who has come from the 

 city to be a farmer, and has invested his capital in land, stock, 

 and tools ? He has heard cattle-show orators eloquently des- 

 cant upon the independence of his new pursuit, and itnplicitly 



