PRACTICAL FARMER. 



117 



there not something forbidding in the profession 

 of a farmer ? And do not our young men, for 

 the most part, turn away to almost any thing, 

 rather than be farmers? Why, they had rather 

 be pale-faced, pennyless clerks in our cities — 

 rrther make their home on the mountain waves 

 — rather hide in the forests of the west, than to 

 settle down as farmers in New England. 



There is no banner that waves upon the deep, 

 which waves over prouder hearts, than our own 

 stars. There is no ship that climbs the waves, 

 that leaps off with a freer gait, than our own. — 

 And there is no man on the face of the earth, that 

 can lift up his head with more real respect, than 

 a citizen of these United States. But the proud- 

 est spot, (if we may tdk about pride,) on this or 

 any other continent, is New England. You may 

 talk about the mighty west — or the lofty charac- 

 ter of the south — but go where you will, there 

 is no spirit that walks this earth like that of the 

 Yankee. Do you hear the fall of the mighty tree 

 in the wilderness ? dejjend upon it, it falls by the 

 Yankee's axe. Do you find the stream turned 

 away from yonder mountain, and apparently made 

 to run up hill, and increase as it runs ? it is his 

 hand that digs the channel and guides it. Do 

 you find the man near the southern pole who 

 dares go and look into the mouth of the whale ? 

 he is a Yankee ; to be sure he cannot make dis- 

 coveries in the moon, and find mountains of pre- 

 cious stones there ; but if you could make him 

 believe there were such things there, I verily be- 

 lieve he would seek a ladder by which to get 

 there, and then with a patent for the invention, 

 draw it up after him. 



Now for one, I not only glory in being a New 

 England man, but 1 want to transmit this charac- 

 ter down to posterity. But I believe we are in 

 fault in one respect, viz: we sufler too many of 

 our young men to go off and leave us. We raise 

 up a promising son, upon whom we set our hearts, 

 and if he has any share of spirit and enterprise, 

 he is away, and New England is no more his 

 home. A few remain, — not one-fifth of what 

 the soil would support, not enough to raise what 

 we consume, but enough to keep our farms in 

 always the same condition as they have been for 

 generations. Our hills will continue barren, and 

 the mica will shine in our rocks, and whole dis- 

 tricts will continue swamps and waste lands, so 

 long as our young men all go off. Those who 

 would make first rate men are pushed off, and 

 their enterprise is all lost to us. Now if I could 

 throw out a few hints which would be the means 

 of keeping our young men at home, I should not 

 only promote the interest of the farmer, but the 

 whole interests of New England, and of the na- 

 tion. Let lis look, then, at the causes which carry 

 our young meji atcay. 



There is one trait in the character of New 

 England people peculiar to them. It is the ar- 

 dent, unquenchable love of money. Money the 

 Yankee must and will have. On that he fixes 

 his eye with a gaze ever burning and eager. — 

 Sometimes you will find him chasing the whale, 

 trapping the beaver, on the raft on the St Law- 

 rence, on the pedlar's cart among the mountains, 

 or watching the machinery which every moment 

 turns out a button, or a roll of cloth. Sometimes 

 you will see him seeking money by marriage at a 

 distance — and I believe this is the only way in 

 which he honestly accpiires it, while at the same 

 time he loses all self-respect. This leads him to 

 inventions and patents, and I regret to say it, 

 sometimes to a species of dishonesty which is 

 well known by the name of wooden nutmeg sell- 

 ing. It also leads to many useful inventions ; 

 and in the words of the ballad which I lately 

 heard beautifully quoted, 



" If we the wooden nutmeg make, 

 We made the cotton gin, Sir." 



Now many, who most egregiously mistake our 

 character, su[)pose that all this sjirings from a sel- 

 fish, a cold, an avaricious disposition ; that it 

 would be impossible for a race, in whose bosoms 

 there was a particle of any thing but avarice, to 

 be so greedy for money. But this is not so. The 

 Yankee miserly ! What mean these schools, these 

 colleges, these seminaries of learning scattered 

 over nil New England — the glory of this or any 

 other land ! Is there a spot on earth where 

 money is so freely and so abundantly given to 

 these and to kindred objects, as in New England! 

 Miserly ! Shew our community a great and no- 

 ble enterprise of a public nature, and see if there 

 be a jseople on earth who will be so generous — 

 more noble — more sublime in their acts. 



And yet it must be confessed that the Yankee 

 loves money, and that he will have it. And what is 

 the princijile which moves him in all this? I will 

 tell you: it is an inborn, unquenchable, irrepressible 

 desire to he independent. Our sons, from the 

 very cradle, breathe the air of independence — 

 and we teach them to owe no man — to depend 

 upon no man. It is to gratify this love of inde- 

 pendence that they rake the ocean and the earth 

 for money. Now I woidd not have them possess 

 less of this spirit; but I would shew them that 

 they can gratify it by staying at home. Let the 

 enterprise which is expended in subduing the for- 

 ests, and enduring the fevers of our new country, 

 be expended upon the waste hills and unsubdued 

 valleys at home, and New England would be a 

 garden, and we could have a population, I hesi- 

 tate not to say, of ten to one. Try then to raise 

 the standard of farming, by subduing our soil, and 

 you keep our youth at home. Till this is done, 

 and till our young men can see that they can live 



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