338 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. [Pub. Doc. No. 4. 



farmer will be neither a drone nor a drudge, and his family 

 will have time for the improvement of both mind and body. 

 As his pride in his work increases, it will be shown in a 

 more thorough cultivation of the farm, not forgetting the 

 removal from the farm, at perhaps the good wife's sugges- 

 tion, of all the unsightly objects that mar its attractiveness. 

 Once let this spirit of improvement get possession, and the 

 farm cannot hold it all ; it will run over farm bounds into 

 the highways and hedges, or rather the hedges in the high- 

 ways, and country roads, and cemeteries and all public 

 places will feel its force. Filled with this spirit, the farmer 

 will become a better citizen, and, instead of kicking against 

 all improvement, — if it costs anything, — he will be up 

 with the times in all that is good ; he will be more public- 

 spirited than he is now, and without great wealth, yet with 

 enough for all his needs, he can contentedly echo these senti- 

 ments of Whittier : — 



" Give fools their gold, and knaves their power, 



Let fortune's bubbles rise or fall, 

 Who sows a field, or trains a flower, 



Or plants a tree, is more than all. 

 For he who blesses most is blest, 



And God and man shall own his worth 

 Who toils to leave, as his bequest. 



An added beauty to the earth." 



