Proceedings of the Farmers' Club. 549 



tliat buckwheat is injurious to the crops that are to follow it. I can 

 see no good reason for such a statement. In central and western 

 ]^ew York I have known farmers to put on buckwheat when they 

 wished to grow a large subsequent crop. I think it is to be praise- 

 fully spoken of, especially as it grows on land too poor to produce 

 anything else. 



Mr. W. S. Carpenter. — It ought to be understood that buckwheat 

 will not have bad effect if the seed is not allowed to mature. The 

 growing plant, in its early stages, takes from the atmosphere the 

 nutriment it requires. For instance, I have seen a fifteen-pound tur- 

 nip produced in washed sand, merely by the agency of water alone. 

 It is true that buckwheat is an exhaustive crop if it is allowed to 

 mature. 



The Farmek and his Work. 

 Dr. R. T. Hallock read the following paper : The notion is not yet 

 universally obsolete that the proprietor o the first garden which 

 history tells us of had only to sit himself down beneath the luxuriant 

 shade and enjoy the uninterrupted pleasure of admiring idleness. 

 These shallow interpreters of history assume that his dismissal (occa- 

 sioned by a little ill-advised activity), lost, not only for himself, but 

 for all his posterity, the blessed privilege of doing nothing. They 

 forget that it was expected of him, by way of compensation for his 

 enjoyment, that he should " dress it, and keep it " in good order. ' It 

 is not unnatural that the over-worked and under-paid man, should 

 imagine bliss and idleness to be convertible terms ; and in the weak- 

 ness of his sweaty brow and exhausted muscles, should charge our 

 common ancestor with disposing of his inalienable right to sit still 

 much below its true value. These wiseacres might greatly improve their 

 commentaries by considering whether or not nature herself, in a state 

 of perpetual action and hurry of progress, can afford to let a man sit 

 still ; whether or not he is related to the grand system of progress 

 which she everywhere hints her aptness for, and to which she responds 

 with all her great heart whenever he takes her kindly by the hand. 

 To answer affimatively is to emancipate labor from the degradation 

 of a curse, and elevate it to the dignit^^ of a divine agent in the work 

 of creation. It is to see man in his true place among the intelli- 

 gent powers and vital forces by which chaos becomes creation, and 

 order advances onward to perfection. 



