THE FARMER'S POSITION. 71 



prairie, covered with wheat, no less tliaii one hundred and sixty- 

 four horse-power reaping machines, and one thousand men, 

 women and children following after, gathering and hinding in 

 sheaves, at the rate of two hundred acres per hour. 



On one farm in Illinois grew one thousand acres of wheat, 

 and hy the aid of twelve reaping machines it was all stacked up 

 in five days. 



With the old method of cutting hy hand, it would have 

 required an army of one hundred men for cradling it in the same 

 time, and with the sickle it would have taken five hundred men. 

 Thus we see the incalculahle value of labor-saving implements 

 and machinery to the agricultural interest. 



Nor is this all the mechanic has done. Our manufacturing 

 establishments are among the wonders of the age, and exemplify 

 the power of mind in adding wealth to our country. 



See, too, the railroad, the steamboat and the telegraph, as it 

 heralds with lightning speed tlie news from city to city and 

 continent to continent, all round the known world. Surely 

 the ingenious mechanic is a benefactor of mankind. In every 

 department of art, our prosperity is the result of labor and skill 

 which are alike honorable and sure of their reward. 



The idea prevails among our farmers that this rural life is 

 one of drudgery, attended with toil and weariness. This may 

 be the case with a certain class of farmers, who are never ready 

 to do their work in season, and who, in consequence, can never 

 do it well. But it is not necessarily so. The thriving farmer 

 is more independent than a thriving man in any other profes- 

 sion. I would not admit a single exception. He who is already 

 rich is independent so far as money can make him, but the 

 owner of a good farm, well stocked, is rich in the true sense of 

 the word. Nature's true nobleman, independent almost beyond 

 a contingency. His stock is a living reality. 



There is often a great mistake in the choice of a profession 

 for our sons. The fault not unfrequently lies at the very door 

 of the farmer himself, who is too apt to look upon farming as 

 the least desirable of any occupation. In consequence of this 

 distaste on the part of farmers, their sons very naturally come 

 to dislike, or to cherish even a disgust for it. 



The other professions are honorable, and indeed indispensa- 

 ble to the good of society. The preacher, " the messenger of 



