156 
Annual Report of the 
post heap, without blossoming shortly in beautiful fields, and re¬ 
turning again in well-filled cribs and granaries. Plants are dainty 
feeders, and to spread for them a sufficient and hospitable table, 
with food adapted to instant consumption, is a thing wise and diffi¬ 
cult enough to do to thoroughly interest us; economical enough, to 
thoroughly reward us. A clod-hopper can abuse the world, 
but no one but a wise man can woo it, and make it a comely and 
faithful spouse. 
There are many other considerations of economy that lie in the 
background, for the farmer’s calling is the most diversified of all 
pursuits. It is possible for a man to raise the price of his butter 
five cents on a pound—twenty or twenty-five per cent.—by the bare 
suspicion, I may sa}% of neatness and skill. There is that fore¬ 
handedness of labor by which we work with the seasons, instead of 
limping in a lame way behind them; there is that forest economy 
by which we keep all our land at work, keep our woods thrifty and 
growing, and plant the timber of coming years. These and like 
economies we must pass because we wish to enforce in closing, a 
higher educational and social economy, in itself more valuable and 
noteworthy than even physical thrift, though growing up with it. 
, • 
It is the crowning social economy of the farmer to deal wisely 
and generously by his household. Not to do it is at once stingy 
and stupid. If a farmer’s children are, in some very partial sense, 
his working stock for the farm, they are much more his stock in 
trade for purchasing and commanding a position in society. The 
farmer lacks educational opportunities as compared with the arti¬ 
san. Our city and village schools are superior to oar country 
schools. This is a very unpleasant fact, but it is in part the fault 
of the farmer, and one to be changed by him. It is not so easy to 
maintain a good country school as a good village school, but this is 
not the entire explanation of the inferiority. I fear it would be 
found that farmers hold a good school in less appreciation than 
they ought, are not as ready as they should be to meet its expenses, 
nor always anxious to avail themselves of it when provided. There 
are inconveniences inseparable from the country, especially in a 
new state. It requires a bold, determined spirit to overcome them, 
but if they are not overcome our households are sure to suffer. A 
good school will often require larger districts than farmers are wil¬ 
ling to concede, while schools of higher grades must be placed at a 
