Year: 1874

At the Rural Club dinner, Henry Ward Beech
er said:


knew that you all understood was a farm
er but speaking not being my vocation, did
not know that you would call upon me to speak.
l expect when die to have on my tombstone,
'The farmer of Westchester County" Assuch,
I want it to be remem bered that have lived
life of usefulness. have farm of some thir
ty or forty acres, and am often asked wheth
or my farm pays. l always say, "Yes-every
body but myself" 1t has set up three or four
men in business; they have built houses of of
my farm, and there are several more that are
just going to build. Yet although it has not
taken care of me, as near as | can remember
have always taken care Of it. If have not
derived much from it in pocket, am sure |
have derived enough in enjoyment to make it
a profitable investment. ! look forward to the
day when l may be released from the contain


nations of city life and may retire TO n Earn.
in the country. l can say truly that when go
among trees am better pleased with my com
pany for the most than am when among men.
find l never had tree that lied to me, and,
although they do great deal OF whispering
among themselves, have never any reason to
suppose there was any scandal in it. find in
nature neither peevishness nor trouble-making,
but much instruction and much comfort. After
a man has been in the excitement of active life
l think there is nothing more wholesome than
the bath which one gets by going into the coun-
try. ! think there is no inheritance, there is
no blessing that anybody can confer upon his
children, no money, no name that can compare
with grit for natural scenery and rural occu
patton. The gift of being in the presence of
nature is greater gift than any fortune that
can be imaged. am sorry to say that this is
gift less often found among those who live.in
the country than anywhere else. l see great
many persons that talk about the country
great deal indeed, but they know very little
about it with the inward man. But to love it
until, soliciting it, it loves you; until when you
go there the trees lay bare their shrines, and
bend and welcome you, until nature herself
perceives you and wants to be the almoner Of
Gods bounty-that is pleasure which we can
not expect everybody to have. The New York
merchant has got to be worth several hundred
try to live and be farmer. He buys place,
and I look over to see what he does with it,
He has been reading books and taking advice
from men, and he begins on it to lay off his
ground and build fences, stone walls or hedges,
and he goes on to drain it and square it up and
deepen it, and to buy manure infinite and trans
port it without regard to cost to enrich the
whole soil, and he builds fine barn and then
fine house, and at last to slick up everyt thing
around about him and when he has got to that
point nature lets go of him, and he yawns and
begins to be restless, for he has nothing more
to do. The fact is he has been mechanical, and
the only thing in nature is that it gives him
something to do, and so at last he sells the
place for about one half what he gave for it,
and goes back to the city and says, "You tell
me about farming, have tried that; know
what that is."