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TTTE -RELATIONS OF AOrJCULTURE TO MIND. 



Thus far I have treated of the influence of agriculture on 

 man as a physical being and in his material surroundings — 

 upon man in his animal life, on his civilization, and his associ- 

 ations which require commerce, manufactures, laws, nationali- 

 ties. Now for a few moments I will ask your attention to the 

 relations of agriculture to science and to what pertains to 

 man's mental organization. 



I said of the influence of agriculture upon man's material 

 nature, that man was composed of the earth, of the air, of the 

 water, of what surrounded him, of what he received into his 

 system and assimilated with his being. Mentally it is the 

 same. AVhat is the food of the mind, its atmosphere, its 

 earth, and its heaven, give character, bias, direction. As com- 

 pared with town life, every thing in the country is favorable to 

 strength and vigor of intellect. First is health, second em- 

 ployment ; and third the natural and social surroundings. — 

 The town may give quicker growth, for it is the hot bed cul- 

 ture ; and it may give more activity and intensity ; but it will 

 lack breadth and depth of character. No more will man 

 come to his fulness of stature and strength between brick walls 

 and under the shadow of high buildings in narrow streets, fed 

 on dry goods boxes, stiffened with yard sticks, and bound 

 around with tape, than will a tree in a gravelly road where 

 the sun seldom shines upon it. The place where one lives is 

 not without its effect. A flat country produces flat heads, and 

 a high mountainous country with the free winds upon it, pro- 

 duces lofty and free minds. Society has something to do with 

 the character also ; and the industrious and virtuous example 

 of the farmer and his wife upon the son, is very unlike the 

 influence of the streets of the city. Solitude likewise has 

 much to do with character. In the city life is a rush ; to the 

 youth it is the morning paper, the school, the noon telegrams, 

 the school again, and the evening paper. There is no cessa- 

 tion — events crowd, and there is little thought. Life is bor- 



