ADDRESS 



BY PEOFESSOR EDWARD HITCHCOCK. 



SUBJECT: 

 SOME OF THE POISONS OF THE FARMERS LIFE. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : — I offer you this afternoon no very ex- 

 alted theme for consideration. I have no nice theories in agricul- 

 ture to present to you. I cannot descant upon the poetry and 

 music of a farmer's hfe. Nor would I impose upon you by mak- 

 ing suggestions how to raise better crops ; nor advise the best 

 breed of bulls or cows ; or recommend any special manure or 

 fertilizer. Nor, much as I love to see and know about them, will 

 I talk upon the many and beautiful machines which render your 

 life so comfortable and profitable. I cannot dwell upon the im- 

 portance to the farmer of schools of science and agriculture, 

 where the theory and fact of farming are to receive their proper 

 balance. But I wish to approach the central figure of our agri- 

 cultural fairs and all farming. I wish to talk to and about the 

 farmers themselves, the farmers' wives and their children. I 

 want to look with you at some points in your habits of life, and 

 Bee if any progress can be made — see if |you can become longer 

 lived, accomplish more while you do Hve, ward off sickness more 

 effectively, and do something more than you have done to elevate 

 the farmer's life to the highest possible standard. 



I know it will seem tame to talk about bodily and mental health 

 in this place. But if Cicero said : " By no other means can man 

 approach so near the gods as by conferring health on man," and 

 if St. Paul says : " Beloved, I wish above all things that thou 

 mayest prosper and be in health," then I am sure this subject is 

 not beneath the consideration of the enlightened members of the 

 Hampshire Agricultural Society. 



