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success no less than for the honor of the calling. And besides 

 the learning belonging to the farmer's special pursuit, embrac- 

 ing several of the sciences, as geology, botany, chemistry, 

 meteorology, and what will one day be regarded as of equal 

 importance, the natural history of birds and insects in their 

 relation to each other and to vegetable production, — besides 

 this, there is no conceivable reason why the curriculum of the 

 farmer's education should not include all that taste and refine- 

 ment, those graceful accomplishments, that elegant culture, 

 which are found in the highest grade of civilization. Farmers 

 owe it to themselves to make their calling, already so elevated 

 and influential, still more honorable and enviable by exhibiting 

 in it these additional attractions. 



Let the esprit de corps which this occasion so happily illus- 

 trates embrace not merely the utilities of their pursuit, but the 

 embellishments as well. Let it be extended to the architecture 

 of their houses and barns, and the sites chosen for them ; to 

 their inclosures and the modes of fencing ; to the planting of 

 trees, and the cautious selection of those that are to be 

 removed ; in short, to everything that may adorn the home- 

 stead and render it agreeable and attractive to the most culti- 

 vated taste. A wood-pile, though a glorious thing in its place, 

 is anything but an ornament before the front door ; and of all 

 deformities in the homestead, I know of none more execrable 

 than a barn with its stall-windows opening on the road, and the 

 house directly opposite. And of all heinous offences of which 

 the farmer can be guilty, I know of none of deeper dye than 

 that of the deliberate murder of a fine elm, oak, walnut, or 

 chesnut, growing where nature planted it, though it should be 

 in the front yard or in the centre of a corn-field ; — a crime of 

 wliicli many of us, at some period of our lives, have been the 

 unhappy witnesses. The influence which things of this sort, 

 that may be classed as embellishments, exert upon our happi- 

 ness and character has never been sufficiently regarded. Tiie 

 style of the house you live in, — it is John Ware who says so, 

 in substance, — its situation, convenience, facilities for move- 

 ment and for work, the way it faces, the shade about it, the 

 scenery beheld from its doors and windows, are all unconscious 

 educators and directors, not of our outward life but that which 

 is deeper within ; and it is these that we carry the memory, 

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