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would find amonc; niir back-country farms. The former are 

 children of rich parents and ought to be comparatively puny 

 and delicate. The reason they are not so is this : their 

 parents can command the best medical advice, and the best 

 medical advice^says : Never take any medicine, especially pa- 

 tent medicine ; send the children out daily ; give them bread 

 and meat, and no pie or candy ; let them not stay too long in 

 school ; have an open fire in their room, and keep the ther- 

 mometer under 70 degrees. The majority of children, if so 

 treated, though they may be puny as babies, will grow up 

 tolerably strong men and women. This may not be agricul- 

 ture, but it is man-culture, and one depends on the other. 

 Our native New England population of the old English stock 

 is said to' be decreasing ; nor will it increase till the law of 

 health becomes the law of living. 



Wherever we strike in, we work round to this same truth, 

 that we ever need more science — knowledge ;■ and to be 

 more scientific — knowing. Let each one, then, approach the 

 subject as he can, not scorning the work of others, but com- 

 bining it with his own. 



Mother Earth holds her secrets tightly clenched, and 

 means to make us pull hard at her fingers, getting out a little 

 here and a little there. Thus she keeps us strong and active 

 and teaches us to value and to understand what we get. 



