113 



bushels, yet there is no reason why it should fall below fifty. 

 All beyond that in our County must be regarded as the result of 

 unusual skill and judgment exercised on crops growing in land of 

 extraordinary fertihty. We should feel justified in pursuing this 

 subject further, were it not that the Transactions of our Society 

 contain many excellent suggestions of a practical nature touching 

 the method of raising corn, and the uses to which it is best 

 adapted. 



INFLUENCE OF THE FARMER'S LIFE. 



EXTRACTS FROM A SERMO>f OX FARMING, PREACHED IN FRANKLIN, NOV. 24, 

 1859, BY REV. SAMUEL HUNT. 



Farming demands its true jjosition in the jjuhlic estimation. 

 There is a current or tacit assumption in the community, that it is 

 not quite so reputable as some other calling or profession. Not 

 only among many of our young men, but among some of the 

 parents of those young men, the impression exists, that the fairest 

 chance for a high place in public opinion, is to be sought some- 

 where else than on the farm. But such an assumption is unfound- 

 ed and simply absurd ; and every consideration of policy and right 

 demands that this important interest shall be placed in its true 

 light and thus relieved from such a baseless imputation. 



To aid in this, we are not confined to a simple mention of the 

 important rank which agriculture must hold in any fair estimate of 

 the necessary elements of personal, social and civil worth and 

 Avealth. It is but fair, that we should look at its difficulties or 

 drawbacks. 



Among these is the Jiard work of farming. But is there no 

 " hard work" in the other callings and professions of life ? Are 

 there no drafts upon the brain and muscle, in the shop and store, 

 the counting room and study, in our busy age and land ? The 

 labor is not the same in the latter as in the former, but it is often 

 more exhausting, and sooner wears the system out. Besides the 

 hard work of the farmer is not so bad a thing to him who is healthy 

 and strong. It is rather a pleasure than a task. True, he has 

 his hard days ; but then the sleep of the laboring man is sweet, 

 and he rises in the morning refreshed, and ready to buckle on his 

 harness again. For it is to be remembered, that behind the sta- 

 tistical fact, that the farmers of Massachusetts have an average 

 life eighteen years lon^ger than the rest of its male population, lies 

 something besides tlic siiiij)le addition of so many years. There 

 is a reason for that addition, and that is found in the increased 

 health and vigor of the system. To such, the hard work of the 

 ij 



