15 



The idea is a prevalent one among onr farmers that 

 this rural life is one of drudgery and nought but toil 

 and weariness. This may be the case with a certain 

 class of farmers, wlio are never ready to do their work 

 in season, and consequently it is nev^v well done. But 

 this is not necessarily so. The thriving agriculturist is 

 more independent than any other professor. I would 

 not admit of an exception, lie who is already rich is 

 independent so far as money can make him. But ho 

 who owns a good farm, with comfortable dwellings, well 

 stocked, is rich in the true sense of the word — Nature^s 

 true Nobleman, — independent almost beyond a contin- 

 gency ; not perplexed and troubled with th3 rise and 

 fall of stocks, or the uncertainty of investments in 

 speculation. His stock is a living reality; the cows, 

 the steers, the oxen, the swine, the calves, the sheep 

 and chickens, and the noble horse. Yes, the fields are 

 his, the meadows, the waving grain and corn, the fruit 

 in its season; the be.iutiful landscape, the pure air, the 

 mountain streams of pure water^ the beauties of the 

 rising and setting sun. "The serene beauty of the 

 morning shall cheer him in the commencement of his 

 day's labor; the radiant noon shall regale him with fresh 

 tokens of prosperity, and the night clouds shall lower 

 around his dwelling only to woo him to soothing slumber. 



There is evidently, a great misjudging in the choice 

 of occupations for our sons, and this is a fault found at 

 the very doors of the farmers themselves, for many of 

 them look upon the tilling ot the soil as the least desir- 

 able of all occupations. Hence there is not an abiding 

 interest cultivated in the minds of their sons that will 

 make them choose agriculture for a profession, but they 



