26 



ADDRESS 



gives his sons : but, if you would have them farmers 

 worthy of the name, remember that there is much 

 beyond holding the plow or studying in the school 

 room, that tends to mould the tastes of childhood, to 

 direct its thoughts, to arouse its spirit. You can not 

 only show that you are managing your business with 

 the same precision and as great mental energy and 

 foresight as the merchant, but, more than this, in every 

 plot from the garden you give to childish hands to till, 

 you can encourage the effort to make the most and 

 best of what it yields ; in every pet from the poultry 

 yard, or in the barn or field, you grant them for their 

 own, you can take care that it shall be a good specimen 

 of its kind, of which the youthful owner may be justly 

 proud — in fine, you can interest the child in reading 

 about the land he cultivates or the animal he cares for, 

 you can induce him to think, you can implant in his 

 mind the ambition to excel. In these three directions, 

 moreover, lie the great deficiencies of our grown up 

 farmers. 



Farmers of Massachusetts ! Grand as is the task of 

 Agriculture in feeding mankind, and vast as are the 

 interests of which it holds the key, there is a level 

 higher than that of our material wants — beyond and 

 above the sphere of bounteous harvests and busy ships 

 and peaceful homes, — of all that is transient and perish- 

 able, — alevel at which the dignity of your own and every 

 other pursuit of gain or pleasure, is merged in the 

 nobler and more enduring dignity of the manhood that 

 is the birthright of the soul. Such, and so far above 

 the platform of our daily struggles, is the great battle- 

 ground of Freedom and Truth on which our country is 

 now contending. For the Independence earned by our 



