REPOKTS. 43 



to injure you if it do not succeed, or seen it tried, or know that it 

 has been tried, and proved sound. Feel your way by sharp observa- 

 tion and prudent experiments, and before many years we are fully 

 persuaded you will agree with us, that if charity, as the Bible tells us, 

 is casting bread upon the Avaters to be found after many days, deep 

 plowing — a thorough comminution of the soil — is casting bread upon, 

 the waters, to be found, with increase, after few days. 



J. A. NASH, Chairman. 



ON FARMS, 



That the farming interest in this Commonwealth and country is 

 ■superior to any and to all others needs no proof. We could not do 

 without the merchant or the manufacturer, the artizan or the archi- 

 tect. AVe have pleasure in according to them their meed of praise. 

 But higher honor is due to the farmer who educes from his mother 

 earth the bread which is the staff of life, and iipon which all classes 

 of the community subsist. The farmers in this country ever have 

 and ever will be the most numerous portion of the people. And 

 what is more, they are universally allowed to be the most conserva- 

 tive in their principles and habits. They are the bulwark and safe- 

 guard of every free constitution of government. It is the people who 

 own the soil, and who cultivate it, that on all great emergencies have 

 come up to the support of law and order. 



The pecuniary estimates -of the farm have often been put too high, 

 especially when made by professional men, who have no practical ex- 

 perience in farming. There is probably, no class of men who do so 

 much work for so small a pecuniary profit, as the farmer. But is pe- 

 cuniary profit the main object for which a person lives .'' Are health, 

 virtue, intelligence and quiet, of no account in the estimate of human 

 happiness.^ In each and all of these the farmer must be allow- 

 ed to have a decided advantage. The unforeseen changes which 

 so often carry confusion and ruin to the mercantile and manufactur- 

 ing interests scarcely aff'cct him. His subsistence rests on a surer 

 basis, and on the fulfilment of that promise which says that seed 

 time and harvest shall continue to the very end of all things. Is his 

 a toilsome life .'' That very toil, taken as it is, in the open air and 

 amidst the fragrance of the fields invigorates his whole nature, and 

 prepares him for that repose which lubricates the joints and strength- 

 ens the muscles and prepares him for the labors of the coming day. 



