FORETHOUGHT IN FARMING. 103 



FORETHOUGHT IN FARMING. 



From an Address before the Nantucket Agricvdtural Society, Oct. 14, 1857. 



BY A. B. WIIIPrLE. 



The first pliase we present is tliat of anticipation. In this 

 term, anticipation, is included forethouglit, prudence, or in 

 plainer Yankee, calculation and planning. Perhaps prospection 

 will be the better word, since this includes the idea of looking 

 forward to make provision for future events. To illustrate this 

 foreshadowing thought, let me direct your attention to a man, 

 about to purchase a farm in some western forest. He goes and 

 looks at the land, examines the soil, notices the way the land 

 slopes, selects some spot where he may build — thinking forward 

 all the while how he will build his house facing in this direc- 

 tion, what a splendid view will be his when the forests are 

 cleared away, when yonder lowland will be the green car- 

 peted meadow — when yonder invisible, because wood-hid, 

 stream shall become a visible line of silver light, meandering 

 through the vale, when yonder hill-side, adorned with the 

 cottage houses of kind neighbors, shall gladden the eyes of his 

 family and friends, as from his own home they look across the 

 garden and the grain field, and the meadow and the river, and 

 up the hill-side, to those terraced gardens, commanding those 

 happy rural homes. 



All this the eye of taste sees prospectively, and then comes 

 the work which shall render this anticipated home a beautiful 

 reality. You know Campbell somewhere says : — 



" 'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, 

 And coming events cast their shadows before ; " 



Init it seems to me that the sunrise of life would be a far 

 better term for the young, who are looking forward in advance 



