CULTIVATORS THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL CLASS. 389 



tors of a soil so subdivided that the majority have half a dozen acres, 

 or perhaps, even a half or fourth of an acre in extent, often scarcely 

 sufficient to raise a supply of a single crop for a small family. 



If we have said any thing calculated to inspire self-respect in the 

 agricultural class of this country, it is not with a view to lessen that 

 for any other of its industrial classes. Far from it. Indeed, with the 

 versatility of power and pursuits which characterize our people, no 

 class can be said to be fixed. The farming class is the great nursery 

 of all the professions, and the industrial arts of the country. From 

 its bosom go out the shrewdest lawyers and the most successful 

 merchants of the towns ; and back to the country return these 

 classes again, however successful, to be regenerated in the primitive 

 life and occupation of the race. 



But the agricultural class perhaps is still wanting in a just ap- 

 preciation of its importance, its rights, and its duties. It has so long 

 listened to sermons, lectures and orations, from those who live in 

 cities and look upon country life as u something for dull wits" that 

 it still needs apostles who draw their daily breath in green fields, 

 and are untrammelled by the schools of politics and trade. 



The agricultural journals, over the whole country, have done 

 much to raise the dignity of the calling. They have much still to 

 do. The importance of agricultural schools, of a high grade, should 

 be continually insisted upon, until every State Legislature in the 

 Union comes forward with liberal endowments ; and if pledges 

 ought ever to be demanded of politicians, then farmers should not 

 be slow to require them of their representatives, for legislation favor- 

 able to every sound means of increasing the intelligence of this 

 great bulwark of the country's saVy and prosperity the cultivators 

 of the soil. 



