ADDEESSES. 



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REMARKS BY THE REV. DR. DEWEY, 



ON THE VOCATION OF FARMING. 



Mr. President, and Gentlemen : — It is said that there are, in the world, 

 more than a thousand millions of human beings. Certainly more ; though no 

 statement on such a point, can be very exact. But how they subsist — that is, 

 where their food comes from, is very simple to state. It comes from the earth ; 

 partly, indeed, from the rivers and oceans, but mostly from the land. This 

 fact gives to the cultivators of the soil, in one view, the highest place in the 

 world. Men can live without clergy, lawyer, or doctor ; without merchant, 

 manufacturer, or mechanic ; but they cannot live without the farmer. Agri- 

 culture, as of cold, was fabled of Atlas, bears the world upon its shoulders. 



The man, therefore, who plants seed in the ground and harvests the growth, 

 may have the satisfaction of reflecting that it is he who keeps the world alive 

 and agoing. The millionaire who rides by, with splendid equipage, may well 

 bow to him; for the plowman may say to him, " the world cau do without 

 you, but it cannot do without me." But whether he bows or not, mankind 

 bows to the land owner and cultivator. His is the most respectable kind of 

 possession. Of all property, his is regarded as having a kind of special dignity. 

 This feeling is said to arise in part, from the fact, that the old feudal lords 

 were chiefly rich in landed estates. But, I think, that it is in part, also, be- 

 cause productive soil, commonly called real estate, is the only solid, substan- 

 tial basis on which the human generations stand — and live and move and have 

 their being. How often have 1 heard the man, rich in bonds and stock, express 

 his satisfaction, when he first got hold of apiece of ground that he could call 

 his own — that was his, down to the center and up to the sky : and no creature 

 could dispute it, in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath. 



How, then, does it come to pass, if all this be so, that the farm and farm- 

 work rank so low with many, in the scale of human professions and employ- 

 ments? Farming is the almost universal condition of men — made so, by the 

 ordination or Providence. Would it not be strange, if it must be, in the prov- 

 idential order, the least desirable of all conditions '< I hear that our young men, 

 everywhere, are seeking to escape from it — are rushing to the cities, to facto- 

 ries, to shops. I suppose it is because many of them can find nothiDg else to 



