out, " Hallo, fellows ! here's the man that wrote ' There's no place 

 like Home.' " But it seems to me there is no home, in the full 

 sense of the word, except in the country. What comfort in your 

 tall four-story houses, where people seem living on a ladder, com- 

 pared with a low-studded, old-fashioned, rambling farm-house. 

 What are Brussels carpets to that great carpet, a thousand miles 

 long, which God has spread over meadow and hill, for every 

 creature to walk on, — which mends its holes itself ; which does 

 not need to be swept, since it absorbs the dust and turns it into 

 carpet too, — an edible carpet for cattle to eat ; which the sun 

 does not fade, nor grease soil ; whose figures are living flowers, in 

 patterns invented by the angels. And what are the pictures on 

 the walls of city houses, compared with the pictures we see 

 through our windows in the country ? not poor copies of a land- 

 scape, but the landscape itself, — a movable picture, with drifting 

 clouds and waving trees ; a picture changing its tone and colors 

 every hour, and every month, — touched by the pencil of God 

 with rosy tints of morning, and gorgeous hues of sunset, changing 

 from green to gold and scarlet in October, and putting on its 

 bridal dress of snowy white in winter. 



The farmer's education comes to him in a very natural way. 

 His work opens to him many spheres of knowledge. If he only 

 is wide-awake, he is led to study almost every science. His 

 cattle lead him to study Animal Physiology, and the laws of race. 

 T'le weather calls on him to become acquainted with Meteorology, 

 ■with the laws of storms, heat and cold, &c. To do justice to the 

 question of manures, he must have something of Chemistry. To 

 get the best farming implements, it is good to be acquainted with 

 Mechanics. And when he comes to decide what crops to raise, 

 and how to sell them, then he must not only understand the laws 

 of trade and business, but he comes in contact with Political 

 Economy., All these sciences are connected with his occupation, 

 and lie grouped around it. So that a farmer can hardly help 

 gaining knowledge and improving his mind, year by year, if he is 

 onl}' wiUing to learn what belongs to his own business. 



Then what wonders and mysteries are around him every day ! 

 Take, for instance, the subject of Seeds. The farmer has a great 

 deal to do with seeds, and, on the whole, there is nothing more 



