1854. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



445 



natural capacity for one pursuit, let him take up 

 another for which he has a natural capacity. 

 Better handle the plow with grace, than make a 

 stupid argument. 



Nor yet does this avocation preclude access to 

 political distinction, to whicli so many young 

 men aspire. We know some farmers who stand 

 as good a chance for office as many of their pro- 

 fessional brethren, and who are as well able to 

 flourish as deliciite a hand, or quiddle as accu- 

 rately, or talk as honiedly ; but in good sense 

 and sound judgment — the essential etements of a 

 man — they are hy no means inferior. We always 

 like to see such men — good honest souls ! — who 

 lean not on the dignity'- of their profession, but on 

 themselves. Such men are at once the strength 

 and pride of the country. 



Let not young men, therefore, think a profes- 

 sion the " sine qua non" of human greatness, but 

 let them cast about and see what they are fitted 

 and have a taste for. They will then go to work 

 thoroughly and earnestly, and be sure to succeed, 

 while on the other hand, they will most surely 

 fail. — American A ^riculturist . 



WHY IS THE FARMER DISCON- 

 TENTED ? 



Those who liave been engaged in mercantile, 

 mechanical, commercial or other pursuits in the 

 early part of manhood, but who have left those 

 pursuits for the cultivation of the farm, are usu- 

 ally contented with the change, particularly if 

 they gained some knowledge of the practice of 

 agriculture in boyhood. It is mostly among those 

 born and bred on the farm, who have little knowl- 

 edge of the necessary care and unceasing labor 

 in other pursuits to insure success, where men 

 and women labor grudgingly ; from motives of 

 duty and necessity, but without those agreeable 

 realizations which alone can make labor pleasant. 

 It is said that as a people we are restless ; never 

 satisfied with the house we have erected, the farm 

 we have subdued and cultivated, the ship we 

 have sailed, or the fortune acquired. 



We have so far been providing for our physical 

 wants, in the agricultural community, without 

 taking into account the fact, that the mind de- 

 mands aliment as well as the body, and that it 

 must be supplied or it will do one of two things : 

 it will sicken by becoming indifferent to its own 

 interests and the world around it, and sink, and 

 die in idiocy ; or it will embrace violent extremes 

 of imaginary duties, and seek, by ever- varying 

 change, that, mental sustenance, which it has 

 failed to find in quiet and homely scenes. 



This is the prime cause of discontent in rural 

 life. The physical powers are occupied by a rou- 

 tine of duties supposed to require little mental 

 effort, while those of the mind are disregarded 

 and unprovided for. While the body labors, the 

 mind lias little sympathy with it — the forces of 

 the man are divided, and discontent, and disquiet 

 are the consequence. ^ 



We shall only speak of this evil among the rural 

 population — the farmers, and their sons and 

 daughters, and in order to do this, we ought first 

 to speak of the dignity and importance of agri- 

 culture as an employment. 



Of the importance of agriculture as the means 

 and chief source of subsistence to all animal life, 

 it is scarcely necessary to enlarge. The fact must 

 be evident to all, that with the cessation of two 

 or three successive crops, the races must become 

 extinct ; a fact which should teach us our obliga- 

 tions to Him who holdn the destinies of nations 

 in his liands, and to whom our profound gratitude 

 is ever due. Uut the moral consequences of agri- 

 cultural employment are less obvious, and i-e- 

 quire more consideration. 



Agriculture means field culture, and its impor- 

 tance is obvious, not only by affording the direct 

 supply of our greatest wants, but as the parent 

 of manufactures and commerce. Without agri 

 culture there can be neither population nor civil- 

 ization. Hence, it is not only the most universal 

 of arts, but that which requires the greatest 

 number of operators ; the main body of the pop- 

 ulation in every country is employed in the pur- 

 suit of agriculture ; and the most powerful indi- 

 viduals in almost all nations derive their wealth 

 and consequence from their property in land. 



Recent discoveries in Chemistry and Physiology 

 have led to most important improvements in the 

 culture of plants, and the Weeding and rearing 

 of animals ; agriculture is, in consequence, no 

 longer an art of labor, but of Science: hence the 

 advantage of scientific knowledge to agricultur- 

 ists, and the susceptibility in the aft of progres- 

 sive advancement. "Agriculture," Marshall says, 

 " is a subject which, viewed in all its branches, 

 and to their fullest extent, is not only the most 

 important, and the most difficult in rural econo- 

 mies, but in the circle of human arts and scien- 

 ces." 



Such is the importance of agriculture to us all. 

 It cannot lack dignity, for it is the mother of all 

 other arts and sciences. It was not too low for 

 Cato, Cinciunatus, and Washington ; and it never 

 can ])c too low for the most exalted mind on earth. 



Discontent, then, does not spring from a want 

 of importance and dignity in the occupation, but 

 because that occupation is not understood. Farm- 

 ing should not bo looked upon as the end of life, 

 merely as a means of sulisistence ; this, as well as 

 all other pursuits, should be adopted with the view 

 of enalding men not only to improve and boauty- 

 fy the earth, but to cultivate the moral, intellec- 

 tual, and social powers, and to fill, according to 

 to their capacity, their proper station among 

 their fellow-men. It sliould not tend to make 

 men mere machines, who toil for tlie sole pur- 

 pose of gratifying their appetites ; but it should 



