THE BEST FA.RMER. 



Extract from an Address delivered at the Annual Fair of 

 the Essex County Agricdlttjral Society, at Peabody, on Wed- 

 nesday, Sept. 2(5, 1888, BY Hon. II. G. Herrick of Lawrence. 



The best farmer, in the largest and best sense of the word, is 

 the best citizen ; that is to say, the better the farmer the better the 

 citizen. 



He is honest — honest with himself, honest with his ground. 

 He is not always taking from it and never returning ; he gives 

 back a fair share of what he takes from it ; he does not expect 

 " to cat his cake and have it too." If he takes away potash, or 

 nitrogen, or phosphoric acid, he will put some back in one way or 

 another — either returning it in kind or growing a crop that does 

 not call for it, and allowing the forces of nature and her resources, 

 in earth or air, time and opportunity to make restoration. He 

 does not believe that plants of any kind will grow with nothing 

 to feed on. Why will a man waste his time, labor and money 

 scratching over ten acres when he hasn't manure enough for but 

 five? and when the five will give him a better immediate return, 

 and in each successive year also, than the ten, with half the labor? 

 Any man, you will say, is a fool to buy ten shares of stock that 

 will pay only three per cent, when he can buy five that will pay 

 six for half the money. 



He is honest with his soil, and will not expect a "good stand 

 of grass " from a peck where he ought to have sowed a bushel, nor 

 will he cheat himself by mixing a little old onion seed, left over 

 from last year, with his new, rather than waste it by throwing it 

 away, as lie ought to. 



He is honest with his stock, and will not think he can cheat his 

 cattle and horses out of good feed and full rations and yet get 

 good work out of them every day in the year, and twenty quarts 

 of milk from his cows. In fine, he will not expect to get something 

 from nothing. 



lie is honest with his neighbors. He will be more than what 

 hard-faced men call honest. He will be accommodating and neigh- 

 borly ; he will not persist in keeping a breachy cow or ox to the 

 great damage and constant annoyance of his neighbor ; he will 

 wring the neck of every fowl he has, rather than that they should 

 scratch up his neighbor's garden, and eat his tomatoes and corn ; 

 will he the Good Samaritan always, rather than Priest or Levite. 

 Finally, he will be " honest in the sight of all men." 



He seeks to have the best home, and when I say home, I mean 



