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forests, in good cattle, in fine horses, in fowls, in the 

 very stones and rocks of his farm, and the soil which they 

 create, that none beside the farmer can appreciate ; and 

 which, it takes years, especially for mere cits and book- 

 men to learn, even one by one ; but the husbandman has 

 a peculiar eye, a peculiar appreciation of each, so that 

 corn and hay, and cow and sheep, and oak, have far more 

 meaning to him than to another. This is the best of all 

 learning that comes only from life and experience. And 

 this knowledge of realities, this command of things, is 

 one element in that noble independence, which, perhaps, 

 is the chief glory of all in the farmer's life. For who so 

 independent as the farmer ? He stands firm on his own 

 soil and cannot be dislodged ! He OAvns down to the very 

 centre of the round world, and up to the starry zenith, a 

 foothold on the earth which cannot be shaken — a little 

 kingdom, where he is supreme ! And he can live if all 

 the world starves. For his acres feed him, from the 

 maple sugar of the March thaw, through the well-filled 

 granary of autumn, to the pork, potatoes and apples of 

 the winter cellar. He snaps his fingers at the rise of 

 flour. Thus he can defy want and changes, and the 

 threats of tyranny, and though he be too modest to claim 

 the sceptre, he knows he is king, and that if he should 

 stop fiirming to-day, the world would starve to-morrow. 

 It is this habit of learning things, rather than mere words, 

 and of developing the various faculties and energies of 

 the nature by contact with things, and by continual em- 

 ployment and hard work, that makes the farm such a 

 glorious place to rear and educate children, and to pro- 

 duce strong, powerful men of the truest knowledge, of the 

 highest capacity and energy of character. And thus it 

 happens that most of the great men of the tvorld have 

 sprung up on farms. It was the genial influences of the 

 farm that nurtured the mighty energies of a Webster, 



