POSITION OF THE FARMER. 81 



THE SOCIAL AND CIVIL POSITION 

 OF THE FAHMEE. 



From an Address before the Franklin Agricultural Society, Oct. 6, 1858. 



BY GEORGE B. LORING. 



It seems hardly necessary that I should remind you that the 

 first step man takes is in the art of tilling the soil. His phys- 

 ical wants make a farmer of him, with a necessity as irrevocable 

 as the decrees of the primal curse. His progress from this 

 condition to the construction of buildings for his comfort, of 

 tools for his convenience, and of articles of luxury and use by 

 which he becomes the mechanic and the manufacturer, and his 

 advancement to that state in which he exchanges his products 

 and establishes the commerce of the world with all its civilizing 

 influences, must be familiar to all your thoughts. But if you 

 go still further you will see how agriculture gives tone and 

 quality to a nation and to its institutions. Aside from that 

 necessity which compels man to appeal to the earth for subsist- 

 ence, there is that attachment to the soil which, once established , 

 can never be broken up. It is the strength of this attachment 

 which rouses so many substantial virtues into active operation, 

 for the protection of our possessions. Prudence, economy, 

 judgment, sagacity, that honesty which is the best policy, are 

 all exercised by him who has by hard toil secured the possession 

 of land, or who is called upon to preserve and cultivate his 

 ancestral acres. Careful forethought becomes his daily habit. 

 He feels the high importance of a moral and intelligent 

 community to his safety and happiness. The responsibilities 

 of his situation mature and dignify his thoughts, and call upon 

 him to sustain those institutions of education and religion, 

 without which society would fall into a hideous and dangerous 



anarchy. As a farmer he has daily cause to recognize the 

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