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nothing behind the very foremost in all the great improvements of this 
improving and progressive age. The avocation of the farmer is, allow¬ 
ing me to judge, at once the most useful, the most important, and the 
most honorable of the various callings of life. It should, and may be, 
.rendered the most pleasant, and most productive source of wealth. But 
if this is to be attained, and it certainly is attainable, the farmer must 
keep pace with the great improvements of his day and generation. The 
means of enabling him to do so are at hand, and negligent indeed will 
that man be who does not seek to embrace them. 
The farm and the farmer’s house may be, and I doubt not frequently 
are, rendered the place of all others on earth the most inviting and en¬ 
chanting ; but to accomplish this, intelligence and thrift must be among 
its inmates. In this department of life, more than in any other, the 
former is an almost sure precursor of the latter, not only in intelligence 
and education in the particular business or avocation indispensable to 
success—but a refined and cultivated mind, at this day so easily attain¬ 
able, is equally indispensable to enable us to make either profitable or 
pleasurable employment of the stores with which success may have 
crowned our efforts. 
On this particular subject it is perhaps not my particular province to 
dwell; but I cannot avoid intimating as I pass, that at this day and in this 
enlightened age, when facilities are so universal and so cheap, for the 
acquisition of at least a thorough knowledge of the English language, 
and of the ordinary sciences, there is no sufficient apology for ignorance 
in either of these particular departments of education, and though per¬ 
haps those of us who are now on the active stage of life will be allowed 
to claim more liberal indulgences in our own behalf, we will not, nor 
will our children be allowed to claim it for themselves. The day, when 
ignorance in the rising generation can be winked at, is forever passed 
away—and those who neglect the proper culture of the minds of those 
■of the rising generation given them in charge—will be looked upon 
as grossly guilty of violating the most sacred trust ever committed to 
their charge. 
Prominent in their efforts and influence, in correcting and improving so¬ 
ciety in this respect, as well as in almost all others, are state, county and 
town agricultural, horticultural, and industrial societies. If those who 
