American Agriculturist. 
PREMIUM LIST. 
SUPPLEMENT 
TO OCTOBER, 1882 
Chat with Headers. 
The picture on this page needs no com¬ 
ment. The Artist has made it speak for 
itself, and all will enjoy the pleasing sketches 
umns, and we add but one statement here : 
Of all young men who enter upon business 
life, many fail entirely, and scarcely five in 
a hundred, on the average, x-ise to be their 
own employers; while comparatively few 
portion of the earth’s surface, with a dwell¬ 
ing of their own upon it. We speak here 
especially of our own country; nearly the 
same may be said of France. But.... 
A Change is coming, in fact has come this 
“ Agriculture is the most 
healthful, most useful, and 
most noble employment of 
man ."— Washington. 
“As the Government lights 
our coasts for the protection 
of mariners and the benefit of 
commerce, so it should give to 
the tillers of the soil the lights 
of practical science and experi¬ 
ence ."— Garfield. 
of varied rural 
scenes. — The Vig¬ 
nette contains two 
notable sayings, the 
first of which has 
stood at the head of 
every issue of the 
American Agricul¬ 
turist during forty- 
one years past, and 
may well stand 
there a centuiy to 
come! Washing¬ 
ton, himself an ac¬ 
tual and practical 
i farmer, fram choice, 
expressed his own 
d e e p convictions, 
but not the senti¬ 
ments of the peo¬ 
ple generally, i n 
after years, albeit 
nearly half of them 
l have been engaged 
j in some department 
< of Agriculture. 
Judging by their 
words and acts, 
comparatively few 
farmers would hesi¬ 
tate to embrace any 
opening for their 
sons, if not for 
themselves, to es¬ 
cape to the pursuit 
of trade, traffic, or 
of professional life. 
Most farmers, and 
their wives, have 
'I been gratified when 
a daughter has been 
• wedded, or affianced 
even, to some one 
engaged in mercan¬ 
tile or professional 
pursuits, instead of 
to an honest, indus- 
trious, promising 
young farmer. The 
i rural homestead has 
been all aglow with 
pleasant excitement 
: on the occasion of 
1 the departure of a 
son to enter even a 
low clerkship with 
some distant mer¬ 
chant. The feeling, 
actual, is, “ Charlie, 
or James, or John, is 
going to take a higher place in the world 
than his humble parents have attained.” Is 
this feeling well grounded, and Washington’s 
sentiment only a “glittering generality”? 
The error has often been shown in our col- 
succeed in earning a salary sufficient to give 
themselves and families a comfortable home. 
On the contrary, ninety in every hundred of 
those who go earnestly into farming as a 
permanent pursuit, become the owners of a 
this is well, and we 
Never before has the 
great mass of Mer¬ 
chants, Manufac¬ 
turers, Brokers, 
Stock - speculators, 
in short, of eveiy 
class down to the 
humble day laborer 
and factory opera¬ 
tive, taken so deep 
an interest in the 
Agriculture of the 
country. They 
study the telegrams 
and weather re¬ 
ports, anxious to 
learn each day how 
wheat, corn, grass, 
oats, etc., are being 
affected by sun or 
storm. The early 
frosts are noted by 
all, less with regard 
to their own cloth¬ 
ing and fuel sup¬ 
ply, than for their 
influence on the 
various growing 
crops. The results 
of the past three or 
four years, culmin¬ 
ating with this year, 
have unmistakably 
demonstrated to the 
dullest mind that 
Agriculture is the 
real basis of prosper- 
ity in all other pur¬ 
suits, and surely no 
other employment 
is more ennobling 
than this. We 
now only add that 
the above fact has 
strongly tended to 
exalt A griculture in 
the opinion of all 
classes, and has lead 
and is leading mul- 
titudes to leave 
other unsatisfac¬ 
tory, uncertain call¬ 
ings, and go into 
soil culture. The 
great West has been 
recently, and still is, 
bidding welcome to 
tens of thousands 
of such persons; 
rejoice that it is so. 
The American Agriculturist. 
The American Agriculturist was establish¬ 
ed in 1842, or forty years ago, in this city. 
