26 AGRICULTURE AND RURAL-LIFE DAY. 



Mount Vernon that he retired to spend his last days. Thus the 

 greatest man in American life looked upon farming as the greatest 

 of all occupations. The following extracts from his letters show it: 



I think that the life of a husbandman of all others is the most delectable. 

 It is honorable, it is amusing, and, with judicious management, it is profitable. 

 To see plants rise from the earth and flourish by the supreme skill and bounty 

 of the laborer fills a contemplative mind with ideas which are more easy to 

 be conceived than expressed. 



The more I am acquainted with agricultural affairs the better I am pleased 

 with them, insomuch that I can nowhere find so great satisfaction as in these 

 innocent and useful pursuits. In indulging these feelings, I am led to reflect 

 how much more delightful to the undebauched mind is the task of making 

 improvements on the earth than all the vainglory that can be acquired from 

 ravaging it by the most uninterrupted career of conquest. 



I know of no pursuit in which more real and important service can be 

 rendered to any country than by improving its agriculture, its breed of useful 

 animals, and other branches of a husbandman's care. 



SEAMAN A. KNAPP. 



Essex County, N. Y., gave to America one of the greatest men that 

 has lived in this or in any age. This man was Seaman A. Knapp, 

 bom December 16, 1833, It was no part of his great work to lead 

 armies, guide political parties, or write essays on the theory of gov- 

 ernment and the rights of man. His achievements were greater. 

 He sought freedom and independence in the soil, and he found both, 

 and gave them to the world. 



A sketch of the first 70 years of his life is merely the story of his 

 preparation for a great career. Dr. Wallace Buttrick summed it up 

 by saying, " Seventy years of preparation for seven years of work " — 

 a work that is referred to by Dr. Walter H. Page, the Ambassador 

 to England, as " the greatest single piece of constructive educational 

 work in this or any age." 



As a boy he took advantage of such schools as were available in 

 that early day in the country districts of New York. Later he 

 entered and graduated from Union College, Schenectady, N. Y. He 

 taught school for several years after graduating. But at the age of 

 32 he moved to Vinton, Iowa, and settled on a farm. There he re- 

 gained his health and vigor. During the sojourn in Iowa Dr. Knapp 

 was called to manage several lines of work, all of which were good 

 training for the greater work yet to be done. He established a farm 

 paper. There were few such papers in the country at that time. He, 

 with others, conducted an agricultural campaign. The first course in 

 agriculture in the Iowa College was organized and the graduation 

 of the first class took place during his incumbency as professor and 

 president. 



