268 



THE OEN~ESEE FARifER. 



THB ATTKACnONS OF AGRICTTLTURK. 



"We believe all men have a natural and inherent 

 love for agricultnre. It raay be perverted by am- 

 bition or the thirst for wealth and power, or 

 smothered by love of ease and luxury ; but in the 

 majority of cases, it still exists, and the nobler and 

 more elevated the man, the stronger is this love for 

 the quiet and peaceable pursuits of the farm. See 

 that prominent lawer, working from day to day, 

 and year after year, over dusty briefs, and ask him 

 wliat he labors so hard for. He may answer, " For 

 the good of my client :" but could you read his 

 heart you would find that he intends some day, 

 when rich enough, to buy a farm— perhaps the 

 very one on which he was born— and spend the 

 remaining years of his life amid the pleasures and 

 pursuits of the country. 



A few days since we saw one of the ablest law- 

 yers of Western New York, on the farm to which 

 he has retired, digging an underdrain ! 



" Every farmer may not become a President, 

 but it is a fact that every President becomes a 

 farmer." Gov. Seymour, in a recent agricultural 

 address, says he has taken pains to inquire, and be- 

 lieves this saying is true. 



" The late Ambrose Spknoer," he said, "had 

 wielded more political power in the State of New 

 York than any man who lived within its limits. 

 For twenty years that man was almost despotic.^ 

 His huge frame, strongly marked features, and in-'' 

 domitable will, c^irresponded with his position. 

 At the time to which I allude, his influence and 

 power had passed away. He was an old m.in, in 

 the decay of life. I asked him what interest he 

 then felt— in what he employed his mind ? I was 

 anxious to know what could occupy the mind of a 

 man whose career had been so stormy, so vigorous, 

 80 important, so valuable as his own. He said he 

 was Atirely engi-os>ed with his fanning pursuits, 

 and that he witnes?ed the processes of nature which 

 they unfolded with the liveliest pleasure. 



" I saw Chancellor Kent, then at the age of 80, 

 almost at the same period. He was a mild, studious 

 and intellectual man, prominent as the other, but 

 of very ditrerent tvpc. l^oth of these old men I 

 fuund,'at tlie close of life, engaged in the same 

 pursuits, and full of zeal and pleasure in argicultural 

 occupations at an age when some farmers are tired 

 otthem. Tliese men had cultivated their minis, 

 and they looked ou farming pursuits intelli- 

 gently. . . /. I • ij 

 *' Every wise man will lay up provision for his old 

 gge_not 'alone in wealth which may be all idle and 

 useless to him. Let us lay up, not only th.at pre- 

 paration for another world which every man 

 should make, but that which grows out of a culti- 

 vated inin<1. Tnste outlives the intellect. I have 

 in my mind at tliis moment one of the most beau- 

 tiful and touching illnstratitms of th.at fact that 

 could *'ll be i.reH.-ntod: My own mother, when 

 her intellect was gone, aad her mind all ajar and 



astray, preserved all the love of nature which 8h< 

 h.ad acquired in the morning of her existence 

 Next do(vr to us lived a young man, stricken dowi 

 and rendered helpless by disease. Often have 

 looked out into the adjoining gardens, and seei 

 the old woman, my mother, in the last stages of 

 life, making herself happy with a taste that ha( 

 outlived her intellect ; and also the young man 

 stricken down in his strength, liappy and cheerful 

 because at the right time he had cultivated hi 

 taste, and had the unfailing resource of agriculture 

 occupation." 



MISTAKES DJ JUDGING LAND. 



Gov. Seymour, in his address before the Vienc 

 Agricultural Society, related some interesting fac 

 in regard to the mistaken mode of judging tl 

 quality of land. He said : 



''Some years ago, the most intelligent man, ' 

 some respects, that our county ever produced— tb 

 late Henry HtjNtington, of Rome, whom the old' 

 portion of you will remember for his great abilr 

 and general good sense— was employed to vis 

 Western New York— the district embracing Roc' 

 ester, Bulialo, and Geneva— and report wheth 

 it was worth while to buy it at some very low pric 

 50 cents an acre, I believe. He went over th 

 region of country. He had not the opportuni 

 which we have now, of judging of the fertility 

 the soil from the geological indications of the cou 

 try. He went all over the tract and returned ai 

 reported that the whole of it was so low an 

 swampy as to be valueless, and dissuaded the coi 

 pany from the purchase. Yet we now know tb 

 a more valuable and productive country does c 



exist. 



" We ha* men who desired to become owners 

 lar"-e landed possessions, and made the first selei 

 ion's, with all the continent before them. Wi 

 was the choice these men made; men ofsagacii 

 who had been successful beyond measure in tin 

 business pursuits ? These men bought the wilds a 

 wilderness of John Brown's tract, which to-day 

 as wild as it was a hundred years ago. I do r 

 mention this to reproach the men of the pMSt, I 

 to instil a useful lesson for ourselvs. These m 

 saw that that region was geographically nearer 

 the markets, that it was covered with vast tores 

 and showed all the signs of a good soil. 



"And here let me say a word in regard to 't 

 signs of a good soil.' I have observed that eve 

 manlooksfor the signs which he has been acci 

 tomcd to in the locality he came from. Tin 

 if a man comes from a country where pines gr< 

 on barren soil, he will conclude that the a- 

 is barren where pines grow. At an early <3t 

 our farmers were prone to be governed 

 these signs in coming to a new country. 1 

 men who bought John Brown's Tract, pi 

 out fur their lard sums of money— whi 

 tlie accumulated interest until now would sw^ 

 to something fabulous John Brown hi 

 self was a very intelligent man; was the founc 

 of Brown University, in the State of Rhode Islaii 

 and possessed the highest skill in business matt( 

 He afterwards sold this land for a nominal f-uir 

 two shillings. I believe— per acre. On making I 



