19 



pure hearts and cultivated intellects constitute its most 

 attractive grace. All this outlay comes from labor ex- 

 pended on the land, and leaves, it must be confessed, 

 only a small portion as profits or surplus. But may we 

 not do better ? Is not this labor employed in many, per- 

 haps in most instances, without that amount of intelli- 

 gence and skill, which would render it remunerating on 

 a nmch larger scale ? While the comforts of the farmers 

 surpass those of most other laborers, may they not be 

 increased by a wiser use of the means at their disposal ? 

 As now conducted, farming demands too continuous labor 

 and leaves too little time for literary pursuits and social 

 intercourse, for the development of intellect and the for- 

 mation of character. It is well that there is a great deal 

 left for us to know and to do ; and there is reason to be- 

 lieve that Ave have not yet arrived at the most economical 

 methods of operation ; that we have scarcely begun to 

 apply the resources of science and the principles of me- 

 chanics to the cultivation of the earth. There is no wis- 

 dom in remaining satisfied with any state of things that 

 we can improve, nor ought our energies to be paralyzed 

 by the magnitude of difficulties to be overcome. 



2d. That we always speak of the profits of farming 

 comparatively — not of what is necessary to the com- 

 fortable and respectable support of a family, — but we 

 compare the pecuniary success of the fiirmer with that 

 of the merchant and manufacturer. When we see the 

 fortunes they sometimes accumulate, our sympathies are 

 excited for the farmer, who after a life of toil, leaves 

 only a farm worth three or four thousand dollars. We 

 omit many qualifying circumstances that might be re- 

 garded as compensations, — the farmer's diminished anx- 

 ieties, his fewer risks, his peaceful life, the habits of 

 economy he is obliged to form, and the greater security 

 he enjoys from extreme vicissitudes ; and more than all. 



