34 



your fair, usual average, I should judge that perhaps a couple of whales 

 would be all you would want for the present. Not the largest kind, but 

 simply good, middling sized whales. 1 '' 



Another source of harm exists in the excessive use of patent medi- 

 cines. Under the false impression that some soi't of drug must be taken 

 in the spring to " purify the blood," to cure a " tired feeling," to " make 

 the weak strong," pounds of iodide of potash are taken under the false 

 name of sarsaparilla, of saltpetre under the name of kidney cures, of 

 alcohol under the name of celery compound, nervura and so on. All of 

 these preparations are injurious and are constantly undermining the 

 health of the victims who are continually dosing themselves with them. 



Recreation. — The kind of recreation most needed by any man depends 

 very much upon the character of his occupation. To the farmer, who 

 has held the plough all day long in spring time, or swung the scythe in 

 midsummer, or cut and piled several cords of wood in winter, it would be 

 superfluous advice to tell him to spend an hour or two a day in rowing or 

 in kicking foot-ball by way of exercise at the close of the day. Exercise 

 to his weary limbs would not be restful. These are the kinds of recrea- 

 tion which are most useful for the clerk and the book-keeper, whose life 

 is mainly sedentary and confined within closed apartments. On the con- 

 trary, the farmer needs a milder pastime, that will be at once restful 

 and an absolute change from his hitherto toilsome labor. Fishing, sail- 

 ing or some sort of in-door games will divert his mind from the toils of 

 the farm and give needed rest. 



I call to mind a man who, in my boyhood, passed my father's door 

 every day with a cart or wheelbarrow on his way to his farm, which was 

 at some distance from his residence. He worked hard, early and late, 

 and accumulated a handsome property for those days. He worked on, 

 day after day, doing the work of two men and more without rest or re- 

 laxation of any sort. So hai'd did he work that fits of sleeplessness and 

 despondency ensued, and finally one day, on returning from the village 

 school opposite my father's house, my mother called me to her and said, 

 " Mr. B. is dead ; he has killed himself." He was then fifty years of age 

 and died of incessant work. 



Good reading constitutes another excellent form of recreation for the 

 farmer, and no farmer's household should be without at least the means 

 of access to a good library, and to this should be added a subscription to 

 some good farm journal, with such other periodicals as his means may 

 permit. These are forms of mental recreation, to be sure, but the har- 

 monious development of the mind and body are essential to good health 

 and contentment. 



I come now to the second topic, the influence of agriculture upon the 

 public health. It may be inferred from what I have already said that, 

 without agriculture, there would be no such thing as public health, since 

 man would cease to exist. Hence agriculture is, of all things, one of 

 the most essential to the public health. It produces the sustenance 

 wherewith man is supported and his life maintained. The phase of the 

 subject, therefore, to which I shall now call your attention is the 

 method by which this influence upon public health can be maintained in 



