PRACTICAL FARMER, 



no 



the top, she seems to hang, doubtful whether she 

 wil! go up or down. Just so with a New Eng- 

 land farmer. Those who get over this point, do 

 well, and thrive, but how many sink away and 

 never surmount it ! Our young men, though they 

 do not philosophise about it, know that such a 

 time is before every young farmer, and rather 

 than to meet it, they will go and meet it away 

 from home, in the forests. It is not that they 

 will not there meet it, as well as here; but it is, 

 that they shall meet it away from home, and not 

 under the gaze and the prophecies of their neigh- 

 bors. Now what I want, is, that our young men 

 should calculate to meet this period of twilight, 

 and not feel that the moment it begins t6 come, 

 they must pull up stakes and go to the west. I 

 want, too, that those who have passed through 

 this hard time, should encourage and aid others 

 who are coming into it, and not encourage the 

 young farmer to go off, and leave his land for you 

 to [)urchase. It does and must come to this, — 

 that if our farmers must have large farms which 

 they do not half cultivate, we must have a thin 

 population — we must send away the flower of 

 our youth, we must have poor people who go out 

 at day labor and get a precarious livelihood — we 

 must have not so much raised by three-fourths in 

 a given district, and we must have our farms 

 mortgaged, and our farmers in debt. 



One more reason why our young men emigrate 

 — and that is, that farming is not looked uj)on as 

 so reputable a business as it is, and as it ought to 

 be. I know not why it is, or who set the fashion, 

 that a feeling prevails with some, that farming is 

 not as respectable etnployment as any that can be 

 named. For myself, I attribute it to the fict, that 

 with all their good qualities, farmers are not true 

 to themselves in some respects. They do not 

 cultivate their minds sufficif'ntly. For example, 

 some years ago, a student in his walks discovered 

 a farmer laying a stone wall. This was in Mil- 

 ford, Coi'. The stone which he was laying up, 

 the student at once saw was marble. In a short 

 time he discovered a splendid quarry, from which 

 stones have since been worked. Now all the 

 farmers in that place had been making walls of 

 marble for forty years — and yet no one of them 

 had the sagacity to discover it. But had they but 

 a very small portion of a reading spirit, tTiey 

 would have seen it St once. 



You have frequently seen men leave my pro- 

 fession and go to the farm, — and some indeed 

 without leaving the profession. And they almost 

 invariable, as you have noticed, succeed and grow 

 rich. The reason is, that every particle of mind 

 which is cultivated is of use in farming. It is a 

 mistake to say that ignorance will do on a farm. 

 Were Daniel Webster now to leave his public 

 duties and go to farmiojj;, I should havB no doubt 



but he would succeed, and this, because he wouid 

 bring his powerful mind to bear upon it ; and it 

 would be useful. ! see that this is beginning to 

 be felt, and that some of our farmers are begin- 

 ning to read, to write, and to commuicate their 

 experience to their neighbors. And I wish this 

 might become more and more universal. Let our 

 farmers write, as sonie do, for the New England 

 and the Genesee Farmer, and no one would hold 

 any feelings towards the profession, except those 

 of respect. Let the profession once be properly 

 respected, and our young men will seek it. And 

 the way, and the only way, to have respect, is to 

 deserve it by having cultivation of mind. It is 

 mind, and it alwaj^s will be mind, that men covet 

 more than all other things ; and that can be ob- 

 tained only by cultivation. You will not under- 

 stand me to say that the farmer in New England 

 is behind the rest of the community in general 

 intelligence; all who have addressed a city audi- 

 ence and a country audience, know better. But 

 1 want to have the standard much liigher than it 

 now is. 



I have other reasons for keeping our young 

 men at home besides the good of New England. 

 From my soul, I do wish we had ten times our 

 present number of farmers ! You know the his- 

 tory of the last year. It is decided that in our 

 cities the mob rules, and the laws are cobwebs. 

 It has been decided that to horsewhip a clergy- 

 man in the streets shall cost sixty dollars; for a 

 black man to horsewhip the chairman of the se- 

 lectmen, only thirty dollars ; and for common 

 men to destroy property and beat and kill one 

 another, it shall cost nothing! Look forward, 

 and what is before us ! There is not a city in 

 this land which the mob cannot rule when they 

 please and as they please ; and there is an end to 

 law,, when even a neighborhood chooses to nullify 

 it. Who is surprised to read in a newspaper even 

 innocent men are Lynched, as it is called, abused, 

 degraded, dishonored, and yet no law will reach 

 them' to pi-otect his life, or to punish the trans- 

 gressors. There is one class of men upon whom 

 we can as yet rely. It is the same class that stood 

 on the little green at Lexington, — that gathered 

 on the heights of Bunker Hill, and that poured 

 down from the hills of New England, and which 

 were the life blood of the nation when the En- 

 glish lion was ready to devour it — I mean the 

 farmers of New Englaiid. They were never in a 

 mob — they were never found trampling on law 

 and right. Were I to commit my character to 

 any class of men, — ray life when in danger, — 

 my family, and my country's safety, it would be 

 to the farmers of New England. They are a 

 class of men such as the world never saw, for 

 honesty, intelligence, and Roman virtue, sweeten- 

 ed by tho Gospel of God. And when this nation 



