Nowhere on earth is there a better occupancy than on a farm: 

 and nowhere a more useful class of toilers. The race got along' 

 ver}^ well without the army and navy, the railroad and the factory, 

 but it never got along without the farm. Here physical culture 

 found its first welcome employment, the expansive chest, the 

 bulging muscle, the compact body, all rounded by use into beauty, 

 harmony and power. Here. too. the intellectual and social fac- 

 ulties find ample scope and remuneration . The fine selection of 

 the fittest seeds, plants and trees ; their quantity, situation and 

 shape; the arrangement of crops, and the adaptability of soils and 

 fertilizers to them ; the choice of stock, literature and association: 

 all these find continuous operation for busy brains and industrious 

 hands, on field and stream, at house and barn, in church and state, 

 from youth to age. Such " a green old age " it was my pleasure 

 to meet, in an adjoining town, during my summer rambles. She 

 was a beautiful old lad}^ of 92 3^ears; mother of six sons and two 

 daughters. She was still occupying the homestead which her 

 busy hands had maintained from her young womanhood, and she 

 still plied her braided cloth so deftly as to make twenty mats 

 since she was 90, besides carrying on her place, making her gar- 

 den, and keeping a boarder. Any one of her honored family 

 would gladly give her a home, but she prefers to be useful and 

 grow old gracefully, and be remembered for what she has done.. 

 I could match her noble character in that of a fine old orentleman 

 of my acquaintance, who, at the same age. still occupies the farm 

 which his 3^outhful labors earned, and from which he has risen as 

 the head of a family, the representative of his town, and the 

 director of a national bank. He is a congenial friend, an intelli- 

 gent citizen, a liberal supporter of christian institutions, and a 

 christian gentleman ; and these are the honorable attractions of 

 the farm. 



But there is another attraction grander than any yet named, 

 and that is the independence of the farm. Freedom sits nowhere 

 so natively on the brow of man, as on the freemen of the forest 

 hills. Those hills were God's first temples and freedom's first 

 home, and home is the birthright of the soil. In that endeared 

 spot Liberty enshrines her offspring, and imprints her sacred prin- 

 ciples, "For God, and Home, and Native Land." All men are 

 born free, but a double freedom belongs to the husbandman. He 

 can plan for himself, and himself carrj^ out those plans. I can 

 not do that, no other craftsman can do it. Much as I esteem the 

 privilege of addressing your honorable society, I could not do so 

 until asked by your society's board of managers. But no man, 

 nor an}^ number of men, can command you to plant ten acres of 

 corn, and five of barley, or whether you shall plant at all. Neither 

 can any one control your crops when they are raised. You may 

 feed them, or sell them, or give them away. Yours is a perfect 

 choice between one culture and another, and you may devote es- 

 pecial attention to a 'particular class of stock, or grains, or fruits, 

 and no man sav vou nav. No boss bosses vou. Your vote goes. 



6 " 



