Fremont weekly freeman. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1850-1853, 1850-11-23
A Farmers Life.

e no less than by the perspicuity with whicl
a they are advanced. We sincerely wish tha
we could afford room, consistently with ou1
engagements, for the whole of this sterling
production; but bsing unable to do so, we pre-
S sent to our readers an extract from it, devoted
to Il consideration of the farmers calling Il
is as follows:
"The best faculties of men must be devoted
to the farmers pursuits: the best intellect
t must be engaged in it; and the farmers life
must be field wide and attractive enough for
the engrossment and developement of every
human faculty, or error,or ignorance and thrift
lessnesS, will not be explored, and the calling
will not secure the elevated position it deserves
Happily rapid change is perceptible. The
relative position of professional, mercantile,
and farming pursuits are changing day BY day.
The first are no longer sought with such avid
ity, the last no longer Stunned. A wise man
should never encourage his children to as
sumo the duties, vexations, and hazards of pre-
carious and unhealthy pursuits, no matter how
dazzling the prospect, how brilliant the prize.
There is higher object than wealth to be
ganed-sound sleep and sound health; a
higher object than personal distincton-a COM
posed conscience. In times past there seems
to have been a kind of infatuation among the
farming community in regard to evasion Of
their honorable calling Thirty years ago a
father was prone to act with his children as
though he himself followed a degraded call
ing. He seemed to deem professional or mer-
camille life the only road to high respectable
ty, or social or official distinction. The Web
sters, the Wrights, and the FIlmores, were
not retained to ennoble their own, but crowd
ed off to illustrate and adorn some other profes-
sion. 1t has somewhat mended of late. 1t
bids fair to become perfectly sound. 1t GER
tainly will, if men will speak The truth, and
hear the truth, and practice on its precepts.--
The world will never regard the farmers call
ing as the most honorable till it is so cherished
by himself In public estimation pursuit is
appreciated at the value placed upon it by
those who follow it. Turn back, then, the tide
of public sentiment among the agricultural
population. The sturdy sense of many a stur-
dy farmer pierces the gauze delusons thrown
around the fanciful and frivolous life of the
townsman. In the expression of his Judgment
sonnd, he yet practically may have sought all
his life to make his children the very butter
flies he detests. If he would have his occu-
patton take rank as the most respected and
most dignifed among mer he must not him.
SCll dSb DIS lIlOuSh ue eSdEQSI IL DIS IL uull anu
stupid exercise of human powers. l know
not so small a fam, so limited a garden, that
may not engross all mans faculties and con-
sumo all his leisure. The time may be dis
tant when each farmer may be geologist,
naturalist, chemist, but the time has arrived
when the application of science to agriculture I
is producing peaceful, certain, and gigantic
revelation, elevating the calling, multiplying
its results, increasing its comforts, and promot-
ing higher civilization of the race.
"a farmer should not consider it presump-
ton, but duty, to gladden. his home with all |
true, and genial, and intrinsically valuable I
comforts, that shed glow and attractiveness
around the private home of the citizen. He !
can make it more inviting There are few
comforts and appliances about the home of
townsman which countryman cannot enjoy.
There are thousand pleasures around a coun-
try residence which all the capital of city
cannot buy. A farmer surveys from his win
dow with unalloyed delight the field now
groaning by superior cultivation. under twice
the crop OF previous years. While he gains it.
the world gains it. 1t is so much added to
production. But multiplied and dubious are
the ways in which a townsmau makes his
gains. Sometimes IT'S the pound of flesh
Sometimes tits extortion. Some times doub-
lie value is given to the raw material, but of
tener his gain is loss to another To say the
least, the townsman is sometimes exposed to
the inevitable necessities of expediency and
dishonor. From such necessities the farmer
can, if he will, always be free
''God made the country, man made the city
just So superior as Gods works are to mans
works just SO far are the studies of the coun-
try to the studies of the town. If you look
upon the rich and gorgeous developement of
nature from spring to fall, from the tiny germ
to tine abundant crop, with no more delight
than on piles of stone. and brick, and mortar,
then your life anywhere will be dusiltory hard,
and dull When he gazed upon the miracle
of his own frame, in awe admiration, David
exclaimed: L am fearfully and wonderfully
made Yet each plant and spire of grass,
each tree and fruit each creature, every form
of vegetable and animal life, is growing and
living miracle, no less wonderful than the frame
of man. If he studies them all as living illus
trations of scientific truths, and he delights at
each new discovery of the capacity and prop
critics of plant or an aulmal, and each new
insight into the laws which regulate its propa-
CATION and perfect growth, then indeed will
farmer become philosopher and man of
science, and his life will be a ceaseleSs round
of triumphant experiment and success. From
the most trifiing act, to the performance of the
highest duty of a noble calling, his life will be
full of delightful satisfaction. The favorite
domestic animal, which he has watched and
and fed from a nursing, seems to lick his hand
in gratitude, and almost eager to contribute to
his support Look along that avenue of state
ly trees, groaning beneath an abundance of de-
licious fruit, or throwing a refreshing shade
over the weary traveller. But yesterday it was
a bundle of mere twigs, which he providently
brought home, grasped perhaps in single
hand. 1t may be that wide fields around him
have been transformed from the wilderness
by his energy, and now blossom like the rose.
No groans nor tears, no sinks of misery and
crime, no squalid poverty, are witnessed in his
daily walks, and in the performance of his da-
ly duty His mind need not be tortured with