6 



ception and fraud, nor affording opportunities for imposition, nor 

 inviting to the practice of that chicanery, to which some other 

 employments hold out a lure. The time of the farmer is devo- 

 ted to himself. He labors in the clear light of heaven ; and if 

 he cheat his farm, he cheats himself Besides, he is habitu- 

 ally conversant with objects, which cannot fail to conduct his 

 mind to that Being, who superintends, directs and governs all. 



This employment conduces to health of body. Some me- 

 chanic arts and manufacturing establishments are debilitating in 

 their influence. They produce a sickly body and enfeebled 

 mind. The farmer breathes a pure, uncontaminated air ; and 

 if his day is toilsome, his rest is sweet. To no one class of 

 men are we more indebted for our independence, than the har- 

 dy yeomanry of our country. From this class were selected 

 some of your ablest generals and bravest soldiers; and on this 

 class, more than any, rests our hope for its preservation. 



Nor will it be said that husbandry is unfavourable to mental 

 vigor. If we do not find, nor should we expect to find, those 

 literary acquirements and general information which obtain 

 among some classes in the community, yet where do we meet 

 with sounder sense and judgment, and greater intellectual vi- 

 gor, than among our industrious farmers? 



The great principles of agriculture are the same in every 

 country ; and the plough, the hoe and the harrow are of essen- 

 tial use : yet, so various the climate and the soil, as in some re- 

 spects to require a different process. One nation cannot adopt the 

 precise system of another. Labor is of the first importance in 

 conducting a farm. In old countries, with a dense population, 

 where it is much cheaper than in America, undertakings may 

 be justified, and attempts at improvement made, which might 

 prove ruinous with us. The disproportion between the price 

 of labor and produce, is a bar in the way of agricultural success. 

 The large extent of our unsettled territory, blessed with a salu- 

 brious air and fertile soil, where a farm may be obtained for a 

 trifle, renders it probable this disproportion will long continue. 

 As one country cannot take another for a perfect model in agri- 

 cultural pursuits ; in our own, so different our climate and soil, 

 that the South and the North cannot adopt the same process ; 



