The Council Bluffs nonpareil. [volume] (Council Bluffs [Iowa]) 1857-1867, 1858-10-30
FARMERS AND FARMING.
Address of Ralph Waldo Emerson

FARMERS AND FARMING.
Address of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
The Annual Agricultural Fair in Middle
sex county, Mass, took place on Wednes-
day, at Concord. The noticeable event of
the day, was the delivery of the following
address by Mr.. Ralph Waldo Emerson at
the dinner:
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
| suppose there is no anniversary that meets
from all parties, more entire good will,
than this rural festival. Town and country,
trades and manufactures, church and lay
men, sailor and soldier, men and women,
all have an equal good will, because an
equal stake in the prosperity of the farmer.
1t is well with all when it is we'll with him.
He has no enemy. All are loud in his praise.
Every wise State has favored him, and the
best men have held him highest. Cato said,
when it was said that such or such man
was good husbandman, it was looked up
on as the very highest compliment. Of all
the rewards given by the Romansto great
public benefactors, the most valued and
the rarest bestowed was the crown Of Grass,
given only by the reclamation Of the army
for the preservation Of the whole army, BY
the faith OF one man. Since the depend
ence, not Of the whole army, but Of the
whole State rests on the tiller of the ground
who grows the grass, the crown should be
more rightfully awarded to the farmer.-
Let US then look at the condition Of the far
mer, or the man with the hoe, at his strength
and weakness, at his aids and servants, at
his greater and lesser means, and his share
in the great future which opens before the
people of this country.
The glory of the farmer is, that i. is his
to construct and to create. Let Others bor-
row and initiate, travel and exchange, and
make fortunes by speed and dexterity in
selling something which they never made;
but the whole rests at last upon his primi-
tive activity. He stands close to nature;
obtains from the earth bread; the food which
was not, he has caused to be. And this ne
cessity and duty gives the farm its dignity.
All men feel this to be their natural employ
ment. The first farmer was the first man,
and all nobility rests on the possession and
use Of land. Men do not like hard work
very well; but every man has an exceptional
respect for tilage, and feeling that this is
the original calling of his race; that he him
self is only excused fromit by some circum-
stances which may direct it for time to
other hands. If he had not some small skill
which recommends him to the farmer, some
product which the farmer will give himcorn
for, he must himself return to his duep lace
among the planters of corn. The profess
sion has its ancient charm of standing close
to God, lie who gives. Then | think the
piety, the tranquility, the innocence Of the
countryman, his independence, and all the
pleasing arts belonging to him, the care of
beast, of poultry, of sheep, of fruits, of
trees, and its reaction on the workman, in
giving him a strength and plain dignity, like
the face and manners of nature, all men are
sensible of. All of us keep the farm in re-
serve as an asylum where to hide their pow
erty and their solitude, if they do not sue
ceed in society. Who knows how many
remorseful glances are turned thus away
from the competitions of the shop and
counting room, from the Notifying cum
ming of the Courts and the Senates. After
the man has been degraded so that be has
no longer the vigor to attempt active labor
on the soil, yet when he has been poisoned
by town life and drugged by cooks, and
every meal is force pump to exhaust by
stimulus the poor remainder of his strength,
he resolves: swell, my children, whom
have injured, shall 60 back to the land to
be recruited and cured by that which has
been my nursery and shall now be their
hospital"
The farmer is person of remarkable
conditions. His Office is precise and i'm
portant, and it is of no use to try to paint
him in rose-color. You must take him Just
as he stands. Nothing is arbitrary or SEN
timental in his condition, and therefore one
respects rather the elements of his Office
than himself. Hebends to the order of the
seasons, and the weather and the soils, as
the sails of the ship bend to the wind. He
makes his gains little by little, and by hard
labor. He is slow person, being regulat-
ed by time and nature, and not by city
watches. He takes the best of the seasons,
of the plants, and of chemistry. Nature
never hurries, and atom, by atom, little by
little accomplishes her work. The lesson
one learns in fishing, catching, hunting, or
in planting, is the knowledge Of nature; pa
tence with the delays of wind and sun, de-
lays Of the seasons, excess Of water and
drouth, patience with the slowness of our
feet and with the littleness of our strength,
with the largeness of sea and land. The
farmer, or the man with the hoe, times HIM
self to nature and acquires that immense
patience which belongs to her. Slow, mar
row mamie has to wait for his food to
grow. His rule is that the earth shall feed
him and 6nd him, and in each he must be a
graceful splendor. His spending must be a
farmers spending and not merchants.
But though farmer may be pinched on
one side, he has advantages on the other
lie is permanent, he clings to his land as the
rocks do. Here in this town, farms remain
in the same families now for seven or eight
generations, and the settlers of 1885 have
their names still in town; and the same gen.
eral fact holds good in all the surrounding
towns in the county. This hard work will
always be done by one kind of men; not by
scheming spectators, not by professors, nor
by readers Of Tennyson, but by men of
strength and endurance.
The farmer has great life. and a great
appetite and health, and means for his end.
He has broad land, in which to place his
home. lie has wood to burn great tires. He
has plenty of plain food. His milk at least
is not watered. He has sleep, better and
more If it than men in cities. But the far.
mer has grand trusts confded to him in the
great household of nature. The farmer
stands at the door of every family and
weighs to each their life. 1t is for him to
say whether men shall marry or not. Early
and the number Of births sre in.