THE FARMER AND HIS AIDS. 11 



THE FARMER AND HIS AIDS. 



From an Address before the Middlesex Agricultural Society, Sept. 29, 1858. 



BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: — I suppose there 

 is no anniversary that meets from all parties, a more entire good 

 will than this rural festival. Town and country, trader and 

 manufacturer, clerk and layman, sailor and soldier, men and 

 women, all have an equal stake in the prosperity of the farmer. 

 It is well with all when it is well with him. He has no enemy, 

 and all are loud in his praise. Every wise State has favored 

 liim, and the best men have held him highest. Cato said, when 

 it was said that such or such a man was a good husbandman, 

 it was looked upon as the very highest compliment. Of all 

 tlie rewards given by the Romans to great public benefactors, 

 the most valued and the rarest bestowed, was the crown of 

 grass, given only by the acclamation of the army for the pre- 

 servation of the whole army, by the valor of one man. Since 

 the dependence, not of the whole army, but of the whole State, 

 rests on the tiller of the ground, the arvel crown, the crown of 

 grass should be more rightfully awarded to the farmer. Let 

 us then look at the condition of the farmer, or the man with 

 the hoe, at his strength and weakness, at his aids and servants, 

 at his greater and lesser means, and his share in the great future 

 which opens before the people of this country. 



The glory of the farmer is that it is his to construct and to 

 create. Let others borrow and imitate, travel and exchange, 

 and make fortunes by speed and dexterity in selling something 

 which they never made, all rests at last upon his primitive 

 activity. He stands close to nature ; obtains from the earth 

 bread ; the food which was not, he has caused to be. And this 

 necessity and duty give the farm its dignity. All men feel this 



