6 



Plough until the stars fly from his eyes and the splints and 

 spavins from his limbs? Why this favoritism for these, 

 while the family roadster must be kept circumscribed as to 

 speed, so that if he desires to go faster than five miles an 

 hour, he must go to the great New England Fair ? And he 



• 



wishes to know how it is, that the wise men who control and 

 applaud the great Moral Show, come here and boast of the 

 fact that this Essex Fair has not been ruined by Horse Rac- 

 ing? But I told my old friend that I could not ask such 

 practical questions in such an august presence, and of course 

 I shall not, but there is one character that rises up before me 

 as I contemplate the scene of our labor, that exceeds all oth- 

 ers in importance. It is the man, it is the farmer himself. 

 The man who selects the land and the seed, the stock that he 

 improves, and so plans and works as to win success out of 

 apparent defeat. And as the man is more than lands, how- 

 ever rich, or seed however prolific, or stock however im- 

 proved ; 3^ou will permit me to call your attention for a few 

 moments, to the successful farmer, and in calling your atten- 

 tion to some of the characteristics of a successful farmer, you 

 will allow me to qualify my remarks by saying, that I do not 

 mean, by the term successful farmer, the man who enters this 

 pursuit with a fortune in his hand that has been obtained in 

 other callings, and is now rated as a fancy farmer; nor do I 

 refer to the man who may take to the farm as a means of re- 

 storing enfeebled health ; neither do I refer to the man, who, 

 after failing in every other pursuit, falls back upon the ex- 

 hausted acres of his ancestors as a last resort to maintain a 

 cheap aristocracy, or to find a decent burial ; but I do refer 

 •to the man who obtains his first acre by his own efforts, and 

 then ^dds to then} as he h^-s need, and improves them too. 



