528 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



wanting. It may, and probably will be said that head- 

 work will not hoe corn or feed the pigs. Granted. 

 But prove to me that an intelligent man is disqualified 

 from performing the duties of a farmer and you will 

 prove to me that farming is a business which it is dis- 

 graceful to follow, and that it is grossly unjust to say 

 aught to induce any young man of common sense to 

 become a farmer. 



" It is seen that thought, intelligence, mind, brains, 

 used in other branches of business, lead to success. It 

 is found that men with clear heads, sharp wits, sound 

 judgment, and business habits go straight along and 

 compel success even under adverse circumstances. 

 Now, is it any advantage to have and use brains ? 

 Can a man with brains get, in tilling the soil, a fair com- 

 pensation for their use ? Can brain*work be employed 

 on the farm and return to the owner as much of 

 comfort, wealth, happiness, honor, and general prosperity 

 as in other branches of business at the present time ? 

 This is a knotty question, but it is one we have got 

 to meet, and meet it now. There is no use in attempt- 

 ing to evade or ignore this great alternative. If there 

 is anything in agriculture that necessarily dwarfs the 

 mind and makes it secondary to mere physical exertion, 

 then it is a disgrace to be a farmer, and common hon- 

 esty requires that we cease talking about the honorable- 

 ness of the noble yeomanry. But, on the contrary, if 

 agriculture will give scope to thought and research ; if 

 it will cause a man to think while he works and study 

 while he has leisure ; if his business is such that talent 

 and tact will transform his soil to gold and his house 

 into a beautiful and happy home ; if the same amount 

 of bodily and mental labor on the farm will produce as 



