appreciated by our people. We long for the more elegant pursuits, or
the ways and fashions of the town. But the farmer has the most sane
and natural occupation, and ought to find life sweeter, if less
highly seasoned, than any other. He alone, strictly speaking, has a
home. How can a man take root and thrive without land? He writes his
history upon his field. How many ties, how many resources, he
has,--his friendships with his cattle, his team, his dog, his trees,
the satisfaction in his growing crops, in his improved fields; his
intimacy with nature, with bird and beast, and with the quickening
elemental forces; his cooperations with the clouds, the sun, the
seasons, heat, wind, rain, frost! Nothing will take the various
social distempers which the city and artificial life breed out of a
man like farming, like direct and loving contact with the soil. It
draws out the poison. It humbles him, teaches him patience and
reverence, and restores the proper tone to his system.

Cling to the farm, make much of it, put yourself into it, bestow
your heart and your brain upon it, so that it shall savor of you and
radiate your virtue after your day's work is done!

"Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to
thy herds.

"For riches are not forever; and doth the crown endure to every
generation?

"The hay appeareth, and the tender grass showeth itself, and herbs
of the mountains are gathered.

"The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the