232 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



have renovated exhausted lands, or to have sought out appli- 

 ances and means to make poor and barren soils productive. This ' 

 field is open to the industry and science of modern farming. 

 Great progress in some countries, and in some parts of this 

 country, has been made in it; but there is room and increasing 

 necessity for still greater progress. What a gift from the great 

 Author of our existence, that man is made the great instrument 

 in disposing the earth in such a manner as to produce. Look at 

 it as it illustrates the scientific dignity belonging to your profes- 

 sion. See what an elevated position you have taken in the world, 

 to be a producer of all the good things which man can desire to 

 make him happy, and also the provider for "the cattle upon a 

 thousand hills." Labor is, and in the best ages ever has been, 

 honorable. 



Yet it is to be observed, that in this age of the world, when 

 all other occupations and professions are invoking the aids of 

 scientific research, the labor of agriculture, to maintain its dignity 

 and respectability, must be coupled with intellectual activity and 

 scientific investigation. The occupation of the mind is entirely 

 consistent with industrious bodily labor. The farmer, of all 

 others, may reasonably expect to enjoy that greatest of all 

 earthly blessings, "a sound mind in a sound body." The occu- 

 pation of the mind is productive of refinement. From it spring 

 morality and religion ; and the farmer can never be considered 

 fitted for his business, and prepared to fill the many important 

 positions to which he may be called in life, without much study 

 and reflection. 



The practical farmer may and should be continually improv- 

 ing his mind by study and reflection ; — reading and study in 

 his leisure hours, reflection and observation in his daily toil. 

 The field of his labor is unbounded, and his mind should be con- 

 tinually employed in searching out the nature of his soils, and 

 what they require to make them productive. If a piece of land 

 is wet, how shall it be drained and made productive, at a rea- 

 sonable expense? If it is cold, with what shall it be mingled, 

 to give it genial warmth? If the soil is light and thin, how 

 shall it be deepened and made more stringent? If dry and po- 

 rous, what retentive mixture will give the power of retaining 



