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COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
and refined and intellectual life as much as any city family ; 
all they have to do is to put out their hands and grasp it. I 
have put down the chief refiners at home to be books, music, 
and social intercourse, &c. I believe they are. Books and 
good books must be provided first of all, not only for amuse-' 
ment, but for learning. There is absolutely no reason why the 
Farmer should not be a learned man. Do you say you cannot 
afford the money to buy books, nor the time to read them ? I 
say you cannot afford to go without them or leave them unread. 
You can no longer keep up with the times without study. 
Brains will beat muscle at farming just as surely as they do in 
science, in politics and in war. It is intellect that wins, mus¬ 
cle is a mere slave now-a-days. Intelligent labor will carry 
away all the prizes from ignorant toil, and by reading and med¬ 
itation you may become intelligent. * * * 
I have set down music as one of the refining influences of 
home, and Bbelieve it to be a very important one. * * * 
Life is hard enough, don’t let us try to make it harder ; let us 
soften it down and smooth over the rough places the best we 
can, give music a chance and it will do its part. If you wish 
your children to love home, if you wish to love home yourselves, 
you must make that home lovely and pleasant. Furnish your 
family social amusement at home and they will be little inclined 
to seek dissipation abroad. 
We are social beings, and social improvement and polish can 
only be obtained by friendly intercourse. Take the wisest and 
most learned, and most polished of mankind and isolate them, 
let each inhabit a lonely house and see seldom or never a neigh¬ 
bor, and how long before they will become a race of boors. 
I know that in a new country, the farmers’ dwellings must be 
somewhat distant from each other, but we are getting past that 
period ; we have now neighborhoods, and year by year the 
homes of our people will thicken and cluster together on our 
prairies and openings. My advice to you is to visit more ; 
young and old, go and see your neighbors ; invite them to see 
you, not to make a parade and fuss over each other; not to 
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