20 AMERICAN FARMS. 



garden of Eden, to dress it and keep it." The first trust, 

 then, given to man, was as an agriculturist, yet, in the 

 very presence of the knowledge with which gods are 

 endowed. 



After the Fall, and when the injunction went forth to 

 all the human family, " In the sweat of thy face shalt 

 thou eat bread," we have the first glimpse of a primitive 

 political economy, in the division of labor between Cain, 

 the agriculturist, and Abel, the cattle-farmer. Farther 

 on, a greater division was made between the sons of 

 Lamech, — Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain. In this division 

 cattle-farming and agriculture stood first ; the second was 

 the harp and organ, which represents music, language, 

 literature, and the fine arts, whose special offices are to 

 cultivate and refine the higher faculties of man. 



In political economy, agriculture should stand first, it 

 being a prime necessity. " It sets at work the organic 

 forces for the multiplication of both vegetable and animal 

 life," without which man's existence would be impossible. 

 To attain the high and noble destiny of man, the refining 

 and humanizing influences of the immaterial, as repre- 

 sented by Jabal, are also necessary, as are the class repre- 

 sented by Tubal-Cain, or those who deal with the prod- 

 ucts of agriculture and the extracts from the earth, 

 turning them into new forms of utility. 



With our desire not to ignore the fact that evidences 

 are presented on every hand to show that nature is 

 requiring more and more aid to supply the increasing 

 numbers of the human family with a subsistence, calling 

 into play an ever-increasing variety of faculties for pur- 

 poses of invention and fabrication, we see no reason why 

 this cannot be realized and met by the agriculturist on 

 his own ground, and, in a sense, independent of other 



