J. H. W. PAGE'S ADDRESS. 645 



of the whole year, what peculiar opportunities have the New 

 En<Tland farmer, and his household, for intellectual cultivation 

 in reference to his own business as well as in other departments 

 of knowledge ! And, to a commendable extent, is it not true 

 that these advantages have been improved ? Their out-of-door 

 exercise, pure air, and habits of useful industry from their early 

 years, fit farmers' children for mental culture ; and it is a ques- 

 tion whether the few months' schooling which they enjoy is 

 not of more value than the whole year to those who live in 

 cities, and beside going to school, do nothing, or worse. 



As to moral education, the farmer and his family probably 

 are affected in the midst of the beautiful works of God, and 

 the evident traces of his fingers on the familiar objects of every 

 day, much as the generality of mankind are by the glorious 

 canopy of heaven, — to whose majesty and beauty familiarity 

 makes us so insensible. But senseless as the clod he treads 

 upon must be that farmer who, year after year, sees the earth, 

 in its season, open its warm bosom for the reception of seed ; 

 observes the shooting blade, the swelling stalk and the ripening 

 fruit ; who trembles at the fear of a failure of his crops, and 

 rejoices at the prospects of an abundant harvest ; who inhales 

 as he goes forth to his work, the fragrance of a thousand 

 flowers, and sees purity and beauty all around him, and still 

 never raises his thoughts with gratitude to the great Giver of 

 all, who thus, almost visibly, surrounds him and his household 

 with the arms of his love. 



It is obvious that this farming is a vast and important busi- 

 ness ; a business that can never wear out so long as civilized 

 man inhabits the earth ; a business with peculiar advantages 

 and attractions for intelligent and well regulated minds. This 

 country, with the irrepressible tendency of its people to agri- 

 cultural pursuits, its power of production nowhere fully de- 

 veloped, and its immense extent of fertile lands yet unat- 

 tempted, is destined to be the greatest bread-producing coun- 

 try ever known on the face of the earth. "With our home and 

 foreign markets, — the one, from our increasing manufactures, 

 sure and constant, unless our manufacturing and mechanic 

 interests shall be crushed by some suicidal policy of the 

 government, — the other, as I apprehend, to be, for years to 

 come at least, fluctuating and unreliable, — there is a demand 



