world in which they have been moving, and want to breathe a 

 purer air, and live what seems to them a truer hfe. Or they are 

 fatigued, and want rest from perplexity and strife. Or they are 

 drawn to the farm by their childish associations with its scenes 

 and doings, or for the realization of a life-long dream of Arcadian 

 simplicity, and rural quietude and felicity. Or drawn, it may 

 be, by a more abstract theory or notion, that the cultivation of 

 the soil, as it was the first, is the most legitimate of human pur- 

 suits ; that it is best to get very close to mother earth ; that if 

 some other employments are artificial, and of doubtful utility, this 

 is surely God's ordinance ; that here, if any where, is to be found 

 health and invigoration for body and soul, and that it is very good 

 to pass one's declining years, and close them at last, amid these 

 most wholesome and peaceful labors and influences. 



By whatever motives this class of farmers is founded and re- 

 cruited, it is a very valuable class in an agricultural community. 



They often bring property into the rural districts, and show 

 what can be done by applying capital to the soil. They are the 

 persons to try new experiments in husbandry ; for when they fail 

 in them, they can afford the loss, and when they succeed, poorer 

 men can pi'ofit by them, as much as they. Coming from more 

 active scenes, with a wide and diversified experience, they bring 

 in and diffuse more hberal views of life and things. They intro- 

 duce new and often better styles of rural architecture, for houses 

 and barns and fences, and all the farm offices, and new ideas of 

 neatness and good taste, in indoor living and outdoor surround- 

 ings. Sometimes a literary and intellectual element and influence 

 accompanies them. They bring in some of the refinements of the 

 city, leaving behind them, for the most part, I think, the follies 

 and vices, and corrupting luxuries of the city. A most useful 

 class it is in many ways. 



And the benefit is reciprocal. These men learn as much from 

 their neighbors as they teach, and receive as much good as they 

 impart. They are a favored class. They occupy a position as 

 fair, and with as many of the capabiUties of a rational well-being, 

 as the world affords. It is greatly coveted by multitudes who 

 never attain to it. A great portion of the men in cities, men in 

 trade and the professions, believe and hope that finally, when cer- 



