THE FARMER AND THE MAN. 2g' 



hood. Upon these alone can the structure of a manly life be 

 successfully reared. On those alone can it stand firm and per- 

 manent. You may build into the life splendid talents, personal 

 refinement, social culture, high purposes ; but without the 

 broad and strongly compacted support of physical vigor, your 

 creation ere long falls to pieces. Many a young man whose 

 early years liave been spent in mental application, to the exclu- 

 sion of all physical culture — perhaps one of those whom foolish 

 fondness, deeming too feeble for the farm, sends to college — 

 when about to go out into life, crowned with the highest edu- 

 cational honors, has found that life suddenly cut off, and him- 

 self crossing the threshhold of his study, only to step into his 

 grave. Many a toiler with head and brain in professional and 

 even in mercantile life, to-day, if promised his first wish, would 

 reply, give me health and strength, and with the willing spirit 

 no longer hampered by the feeble flesh, I will accomplish my 

 best ambition. 



It is your happy lot, gentlemen, to follow a calling that more 

 than any other directly and effectually supplies this first element 

 of a worthy life — counting life's worth always by what it can 

 accomplish. There are other kinds of manual toil indeed ; 

 and all such toil tends in some measure to the development of 

 the body. But not all alike. Some of these call into exercise 

 only certain portions of the body ; hence their physical results 

 are partial. Others, through their method or material, exert a 

 counteracting, deleterious influence. Hence it is in some of 

 the mechanical occupations that human life is the shortest. 

 Thus from official documents of our own State, whose record 

 runs through a period of nearly thirteen years, it appears that 

 printers, machinists, painters, and tailors stand at tlie lowest 

 average of life — the two former dying at thirty-six and thirty- 

 seven, the two latter at forty-two years of age. The reason for 

 this is evident, viz. : the indoor confinement and the inhalation 

 of irritating or poisonous substances from the material of their 

 work. At the head of the list, of which these occupations form 

 the foot, stand the farmers, attaining the highest average, sixty- 

 four years ; going far towards doubling the life of the printer, 

 living seven years longer than lawyer or minister, ten years 

 longer than the doctor, and nearly thirteen years longer thaii 



