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Wisconsin state Agricultural society . 
to keep it; ” but he, like a great many other young men, who in¬ 
herit farms, without knowing their cost, or appreciating their 
value, “kept not his first estate” and incurred the unalterable 
decree: “cursed be the ground for thy sake ; in the sweat of thy 
face shall thou eat bread all the days of thy life”—thus bj his 
great transgression entailing labor and toil for all time to come 
upon the sons of men. Yet sometimes when in midsummer we 
look out over these broad, cultivated prairies, and discover that 
the greatest happiness of our race is associated with the cultiva¬ 
tion of the soil, we are irresistably led to the conclusion that if 
this decree was ever severe, much of that severity has been revok¬ 
ed, and that this Providence has proved a blessing rather than a 
curse to mankind. 
Looking at man in his present condition, it would seem as if 
his greatest misfortune would be idleness and inactivity. Under 
the present dispensation, to obtain our choicest, richest blessings, 
requires the greatest exertions. 
Labor is defined to be the efforts of human beings to produce 
objects of desire. It may be divided and subdivided a great 
number of times—as physical or muscular labor, and into mental 
labor, which occupies the energies of the mind—into productive 
and unproductive labor—into agricultural, mechanical and com¬ 
mercial labor, and so on. 
There is no distinction in labor that is entirely separate from all 
the rest, as the most stupid laborer must give some heed to what 
he is doing, and the profound thinker do some muscular labor in 
order to give to the world the benefit of his investigations. 
Productive labor returns to society and the state more than its 
equivalent, and unproductive labor less than cost. Hence, un¬ 
productive persons and employments must be supported by those 
who produce more than they consume, and is the same thing as 
throwing away the amount of useful articles which might have 
been produced, had it been directed in proper channels. 
Productive labor is the only source of wealth to the state. Na¬ 
ture has furnished spontaneously all the matter of which all arti¬ 
cles and commodities are made, but until labor is applied to that 
matter to prepare it for use, it is not considered any part of wealth. 
If, then, labor is the true source of wealth, he that has muscle 
