12 



RELATION TO MORALS. 



I will not close without suggesting that the realm of 

 morals comes clearly into the farmer's life. A man can 

 sometimes deal unjustly with his fellow, and escape the 

 penalty, but he can never do that with his land. 



Nature teaches honesty. A man must be honest with 

 his farm. If you defraud your land you will suffer loss. 

 "Nature never forgives an injury." You can never pros- 

 per if you take out of your farm its power of production 

 and make no restitution. You may ill-treat it and rob it, 

 and then it will refuse you its gifts. You will be unable 

 to feast from its bounty. The duty of rendering an 

 equivalent is one of the common of the teachings of 

 nature. Let out your land to a man who takes off the 

 hay, and grain, and straw, and you will soon find your 

 land barren. The very soil cries out against the sin of 

 robbery. The farm teaches the duty of exerting a pure 

 influence. Mix the Canada thistle with your seed oats, 

 or let the Avhite daisy have free range over your fields, or 

 admit couch-grass into your garden, and you have done 

 an evil which the labor of a generation will hardly re- 

 deem. Resistance of evil is a duty which the farmer 

 knows to be a cardinal virtue. So in all our human re- 

 lations, it is so very easy to let in the thing that is wrong. 

 The evil thing needs no fostering ; it will nourish itself. 

 The thistle will grow in t)\e hedge row, or in the heart of 

 your field. Lust will dwell in the brothel, or in the 

 sacred inclosure of home. It will not be subdued by the 

 curses of the one, nor by the tears and lamentations of 

 the other. You are not only dropping seed into the 

 ready soil, but you are sowing the seed of character in 

 the minds of all about you, especially in the hearts of 

 children, who take the type of character from your ex- 



