Farming is noble when it is nobly done, — when it is meanly done, it is 

 mean. Whether a farmer is intelligent and honorable depends entirely on 

 himself, not at all on his occupation. In other words, a farmer is not 

 "a gentleman by right of his profession." I have the same profound 

 respect for a good, honest, manly, straight-forward, kind-hearted, clear- 

 headed farmer, that I have for a good, honest, manly, straight-forward, 

 kind-hearted, clear-headed shoemaker, or lawyer, or clergyman. I recognize in 

 each of them the qualities on which the advancement of the world is to 

 depend, and toward which it is the duty of us all to bend our natures, — as 

 much as our natures will allow. On the other hand, when I see a stingy, 

 close-fisted, narrow-minded, pig-headed man, who is jealous and suspicious 

 of all improvement, the fact that he is a farmer does not make him any 

 more lovely in my eyes, than if he were a mechanic, nor can it shield him 

 from the contempt that all meanness deserves, among what ever class it may 

 appear. 



It is important that all men — farmers as well as others — should have a fixed 

 and tangible aim, something to work for ; but something which, when they shall 

 have attained it, will be worth the work it has cost. Now, in the case of the 

 farmer, what shall this aim be ? 



Mere worldly prosperity: the ownership of broad acres and fat herds ; the 

 piling up of stocks and bonds ; and the spreading of one's parchment over all 

 the farms of a neighborhood — all these are, in and of themselves, of no avail to 

 make a man happy or to make him respectable. When they become the main 

 object of life, they are actual clogs to their possessor. At the same time, money, 

 that root of all evil, may be made, when rightly managed, a fruitful soil from 

 which vast good may grow; and I hold to the doctrine that, in the development 

 of the world, money is the best aid to advancement. The work by which our 

 progress is made is stimulated by the hope of profit. The desire for wealth, 

 (much or little, according to our ideas,) is a wholesome and laudable desire. It 

 is this desire that makes us work, and it is our work that makes us, or that may 

 make us, great. 



Work, — real hard work, with head aud hands and heart, this is the key to a'l 

 success. Head work alone will not answer, neither will hand work alone. The 

 whole man must be thrown into the fight — not recklessly and blindly, but with 

 a well considered judgment. We must understand that the reason why men 

 succeed as merchants or as manufacturers is that they take advantage of every 

 circumstance that can be made to favor them. They see where their competitors 

 arc weak, and there they make themselves strong to outstrip them. They know 

 that it is only in excessive production, in the minutest economy, and in the ut- 

 most activity of exchange, that the possibility of great success lies. Every- 

 thing is done with a tension that an eager desire for gain alone caif give. The 

 successful man is bent on coining his success into gold, and all his energies are 

 harnessed to the ceaseless task, as they would not be were he working with any 

 other motive. The farmer, if he would be successful, must imitate the success- 

 ful men of other occupations. Not only must he work with all his mind and 



